A New Year, a new look

Editor, Security Systems News It’s hard to believe that 2004 is here. Though I’m writing this editorial with a little more than a week left before the New Year arrives, in many ways it already has for us at Security Systems News. Our January issue is a testament to that. For us, 2004 is well on its way with work already begun on our upcoming sourcebook on CCTV & Surveillance and new product coverage that we’ll be doing for ISC West. But unlike years past, with this New Year comes our new look. It’s fresh. It’s clean. It’s crisp. But one thing it doesn’t do is change how we’ve covered the news in the security market for the past seven years. Why the redesign to our newspaper? We’ve listened to you, our readers, and your requests for an easier-to-read publication. You’ll find that the most important story on the page grabs your attention with a larger, more defined headline. Instead of being located at the bottom of the page, and often covered by large advertisements, our page numbers can now be found at the top of the page. The colors we now employ on our pages are vibrant, helping graphics and text stand out. Other changes that you’ll notice are more subtle – we now have a different photo cutline font that does not blend in with the text for our stories. There’s more space on section opening pages for stories. The end result for you, our reader, should be the ability to navigate through our pages more easily than ever before. You should be able to identify the important stories impacting the security industry. The year 2004 is ahead of us, and it’s likely that Security Systems News’ redesign will not be the only change in the security industry during the year. We expect more consolidation on the manufacturing front, anticipate that systems integrators will partner with other companies to keep their competitive edge, and foresee additional venture capital and financial firms to make new investments in the security industry. Change is in store for all of us. The question is, how will your company look a year from now?