A couple of upgrades

Publishing a successful magazine requires constant reinvention. As time goes by rarely is the original, unchanged editorial model up to the job and tweaking is necessary. This is one of those times. So if you are a dedicated Electronic Products reader—and I hope you are—you will undoubtedly notice different editorial elements in this issue, developed after careful consideration of the evolving needs of a discerning audience such as your good selves.

Magazines, like baseball teams, need a good closer and last month we introduced a brand new last page called EP Extra. Here you’ll find a selection of Web logs (blogs) from our eeBeat.com site. We think we know what you want out of blogs: lighter, yet engaging pieces giving the author’s point-of-view. As such our editorial staff’s blog postings cover a wide variety of subjects, from fun stuff such as Murata’s bicycle-riding robot to our “editor’s notebook” perspectives on industry events. You’ll even find the occasional blog reporting on what we’re doing on weekends.

Our editorial staff’s blog postings cover a wide variety of subjects, from fun stuff such as Murata’s bicycle-riding robot to our “editor’s notebook” perspectives on industry events.

The Around the Network section of EP Extra draws its content from multiple sources, including our eeTechBrief.com webcasts, Web exclusive Electronic Products articles and developments in our Electronic Engineering Master (EEM) directory, which lets engineers browse the entire electronics industry in one convenient source. Through EEM.com engineers are also able to search for parts by part number, by product type, by supplier and by technical parameters (via IC Master).

What’s more, our inventory search engine interfaces with a database containing parts from major franchised distributors worldwide. You simply type in a part number to determine exactly who carries a given part and how many are available in stock. In all, we’re confident you’ll find EEM and EEM.com to be an ideal companion tool to Electronic Products .

Finally, in the right hand column of EP Extra you’ll find a sneak peak at next month’s issue so you won’t feel like you’re setting out on a journey without a map or destination. This month we preview our August issue’s Power Supplement.

For years Electronic Products has followed a pattern that’s about as regular as summer following spring—new products are arranged by product category. In this issue the pattern still holds, but we are introducing a few pages distilling solutions-oriented product and product technology under the heading Applications Focus. The new section includes two modules: a product module, this month covering Medical Electronics, and a “Best of Semiconductor Applications” page, bringing you the most significant new solutions introduced in Semiapps.com. The page also includes highlights from Semiapps blogs, featuring personalities from the semiconductor vendor community with a user feedback mechanism provided at the tail end of each blog.

A magazine is always a work in progress and as always we appreciate your thoughts. Please e-mail me at mslovick@hearst.com and let me know what you think of the newest Electronic Products content.

Murray Slovickmslovick@hearst.com