Our year of change

2015 was the year of reforms at D+C/E+C. We have basically turned the way we work upside down. In the past, we produced a print magazine and used the content on our website. Now, we produce a website and use its content for the magazine. The contributions as such are still the same kind of contributions we have been publishing for years, but the way we plan and organise matters is different. These things are not supposed to concern you, our readers, and we hope you did not notice much – apart from our distribution channels evolving and us posting more content.

The major changes are:

1. We are now posting at least one new contribution on our website every day, not counting the entries we post on our new blog (I’ll return to the blog below).
2. We are now publishing the monthly magazine we used to print in an online version, launching a new edition every month (unlike previously only 11 times per year).
3. Since July, we have been producing our bi-monthly new print magazine.
4. We launched our new blog in fall. It allows us to comment on various issues in a flexible and somewhat less formal way, as well as to provide insights into our work, as I am doing this time.

I first spelled out the reform agenda on the website in January and can now state that we have accomplished the mission. In our eyes, the reforms have worked out well. Our website now has twice as many visitors as it had last year, so it has obviously become more attractive. On facebook, we now have more than 75,000 likes. Readers tell us they like the new print edition, which is inspiring too. No-one has said the new print version is not good, but some have told us they miss the monthly magazine they were used to reading. Unfortunately, not all of them seem willing to shift to the e-Paper – but some are obviously still unaware of the e-Paper. We’ll be advertising it on the website and in the print magazine accordingly.

The forum we provide is quite unique because we publish the vast majority of contributions in German and English versions. To my knowledge, there is no other media outlet that would facilitate this kind of international exchange. Moreover, the forum is interactive, as one quarter to one third of the contributions are based on proposals by authors rather than ideas of the editorial team. Indeed, we decided to drop the weekly news item we were publishing for a while on Saturdays to make space for more contributions.

We want to further improve our product and are therefore interested in your feedback. Do tell us what you like or dislike about our work – here in the comment section on the website or by sending an e-mail to euz.editor@fs-medien.de. Let us know what you think – it may well make a difference. You are also welcome to make proposals for contributions to euz.editor@fs-medien.de.