This week's issue of Farmers Weekly will carry some design enhancements to improve signposting of sections and simply update the look of one of Britian's best selling business magazines. It's been four years since we changed the presentation of FW and we felt it was time to have a freshen up. The FW brand is 75 years old this June and, there's no doubt about it, it wouldn't have survived that long if the magazine had not changed along the way.
The main pages subject to a bit of a makeover are the contents spread telling readers where everything is, the columnist pages and the opening of the technical sections. We have also tried to do a better job of pointing readers to what's available on our website www.fwi.co.uk to make sure they don't miss out on all the extra content and services that's there and it's free. The magazine and website complement each other and are delivered by one team.
Those in the property market may have noticed more significant changes made to our twice a year subscription publication Farmland Market. See Phil Clarke's agribusiness blog. Business Editor and Farmland Market Editor Ian Ashbridge has led a fantastic revamp of this magazine, which includes a more modern design, better paper stock, latest farmland price data from the Valuations Office Agency and a detailed look at where land values could go in the rest of 2009. We've also strengthened our links with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. If you are interested in subscribing call: 01444 445566 (£95).
I'm really proud of what our design and production team have achieved this year. They are now a fully fledged multi media desk handling web and print content, text, photography and video. Good design is such a subjective thing but it can make or break magazines, particularly nowadays when they are having to compete with more interactive media like television and internet.
Keeping magazines and websites moving forward in line with reader and user needs is critical. We've been doing it for years but are not complacent. And it looks as if our efforts have been recognised in the wider publishing world.
In the last week, the Farmers Weekly Group has been shortlisted for a record eight times in two major publishing and digital media Awards, which recognise and reward editorial and publishing excellence.
The weekly magazine, our website and four members of the team will be competing for the prizes next month in two separate Award schemes organised by the Periodical Publishers Association and the Association of Online Publishers. The categories are all independently judged but the competition will be fierce. Fingers crossed and we will keep you posted as to progress. Once you've seen this week's issue, let us know what you think of the design tweaks by sharing your thoughts on our forums.