Our new size is just the beginning
The first issue of National Home Center News—the precursor of Home Channel News—was published Jan. 13, 1975, with a mission to provide the marketplace with information about the rapidly changing world of home improvement retailing.
Home Depot was yet to open its doors and W.R. Grace (remember them?) was in the process of creating the largest network of home improvement retailers in the nation. In large part the home improvement business was dominated by discounters and mass merchants such as Kresge’s, J.C. Penney, Two Guys and Woolco, which were all important stakeholders in the game. Cash and carry lumberyards such as 84 Lumber focused on consumers as much as on building professionals.
Obviously, the landscape of home improvement has undergone a dramatic metamorphosis over the past 34 years. So have the ways and means of disseminating and utilizing marketplace information.
The World Wide Web didn’t come along until 1992. Instant messaging, Linked In and Twitter? Inconceivable.
Today, of course, people want their news, networking and related content 24/7/365. This issue of Home Channel News reflects the changing marketplace. In our new size, HCN will continue to bring current analysis and actionable practical information to our audience in a size that lends itself to in-depth reporting and insight. In tandem we are ramping up our digital offerings that soon will include up-to-the-minute daily newsletters, illustrative videos and opportunities for business networking and communication. Thousands of you have already embraced digital products; our Web site has 50,000 unique visitors a month, and we send well over 100,000 electronic newsletters to readers every two weeks. The open rates are some of the best in the business. We know you will enjoy the new products that will keep you informed in an even more timely manner.
Our goal is to surround you with interactive home channel information that will help generate revenue and profits—information that you can access as you please. The magazine you hold in your hand is one building block to this end. It is also a greener alterative to tabloid publishing. By publishing in a smaller format, HCN will be saving 70,000 pounds of paper by year’s end.
Communications, content and the home channel universe itself may have radically changed, but on a certain level, HCN’s mission has not. We’re here to inform and provide you with the intellectual tools of the trade. Paper or electronic, the news you can use will be more accessible than ever.