Riding the Changes
Here in my adopted home of Chicago, long-standing traditions are facing change.
Not only are both ball clubs given a good chance to get into the playoffs, but fans who for years have been satisfied to end up out of the cellar are now whispering the magic phrase “subway series.” That’s different.
Meanwhile, the City Council is debating de-throning two other fine Chicago idols: drinking and flouting the parking laws. The city fathers want the stadium-side bars of Wrigleyville to stop serving alcohol at the seventh inning of playoff games. And in their aldermanic wisdom, they want to apply the Denver boot to cars with only two unpaid parking tickets, not the customary three. In a city where most parking rules date back to Daley Senior’s first day in office, that’s beyond change; it’s revolution.
The town’s journalistic traditions are facing upheaval too. The venerable Chicago Tribune is going through the biggest change in its history, combining sections, reducing news space and running bigger graphics. The paper will even shrink down its front-page logo — “Chicago Tribune” in magisterial Gothic font — to simply a lowercase “Trib.”
That’s a lot of facelift for a 141-year-old.
Here at Promo we’re changing in the other direction, redesigning our Web site to make room for more of what we cover every day.
Starting early this month you’ll be able to see the results of that revamp online at www.PromoMagazine.com. We’re adding features galore, from video and podcasts to online discussion forums to all things promotional. You’ll find bigger links to our blogs, too: Promo Interactive, written by yours truly, and The Pro Shop, authored by all of us on the Promo staff.
An “On the Spot” feature will put out Q&A sessions with executives from the brands you want to know about, both in print and on video. Of course, there’ll also be Promo’s daily Xtra news coverage of deals, campaigns and issues.
As if all that were not enough, our new site will also hook into our sister magazines in the Penton marketing group, Direct and Multichannel Merchant. Both of their sites are also re-launching with added interactive goodness. And over us all, the new mother ship: www.ChiefMarketer.com, with my colleague Beth Negus at the helm offering high-level looks at the marketing issues that affect us all.
As you’ll see from a trip to our site, many changes have been made to the look and feel. We think you’ll like them and find them valuable.
And let’s face it: Tradition ain’t what it used to be.
