We hear from readers a lot. Sometimes you ask us to address a problem. Sometimes you pitch story ideas. Sometimes you’re just giving us a thumb’s up; other times, it’s constructive criticism. Never, though, has anyone suggested we redesign the magazine.
Then you might wonder why we’ve spent the last six months refining the LM brand, why our logo has changed or why we’ve reinvented sections of the magazine and introduced new ones. Why, then, did we change things up when the old content and design were working just fine?
One school of thought says, “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.” Another says, “If you’re not growing, you’re dying.”
We agree with the latter, and 2014 was time for us to take on a research project to see how we could evolve. Our last content overhaul was in 1999 with a face-lift and new logo in 2009. When you think of how much has changed in the landscape market and in the media world over that time, it’s evident why we’d consider a change.
We worked with a third-party research firm to conduct a focus group, lead one-on-one interviews and field an online survey to both readers and industry suppliers. We were pleased to learn readers were generally happy with LM’s content, but we didn’t celebrate that news for long. Instead, we focused on what we could improve. We identified readers’ wants and must-haves to craft a new LM.
The results are what you see here. When we analyzed all the insights, what stood out was the word “growth.” Our readers—although they’re all over the map in terms of business size, service line and sophistication level—have a commonality: the ambition to grow. That revelation and others from the research drove our new approach.
Let’s start with our redesigned logo, which incorporates our initials. It’s distinctive and strong—something we’d like to be able to say about everything we do here at LM.
Every issue will deliver a cover story detailing a top-of-mind business topic, a special report or a unique company success story. In addition, we’re committing to producing visual, practical features, like Big Picture (page 8) and Step by Step (page 14), respectively.
Plus, we’ll share at least one story about Turf + Ornamental Care, Mowing + Landscape Maintenance, Design/Build + Installation and Irrigation + Water Management in every issue in our appropriately named Profit Centers section (page 21).
To be sure we’re on track, we’ve enlisted a group of readers plus friends of and frequent contributors to LM to serve as our Editorial Advisory Board. They’ll give us a quick tip each month (see opposite page), share story ideas, evaluate our content and generally keep us in check.
Undertaking this redesign was a major effort and an inherent risk, just like any change is. All the research in the world isn’t as instructive as implementing something new, considering the response and continuing to evolve, which we fully intend to do. We truly hope our new approach helps you grow, or if nothing else, inspires you to be open to change.
