OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill. -- A splashy lead to this column would be: Get ready to watch CSP innovate again as we roll out an exciting and improved website and daily newsletter!
The more introspective lead goes like this: The most exciting element of my 13 years working at CSP has always been the willingness to change, to try new things, to push our boundaries and forget about comfort levels. For me personally, that willingness will get its biggest workout yet with the launch today of our new and improved website and daily newsletter.
What makes that remarkable, in my view, is that a publishing company built on pioneering actually became more innovative when it got new ownership 18 months ago. It tells me the new leadership knew it was taking on a company that could meet its challenges and together we could take CSP Business Media—and its magazines, websites, newsletters and meetings—to a new level not seen in convenience store trade publishing before.
Indeed, from the day new CEO Mike Wood introduced himself to me, the editorial team and the rest of CSP, he made it known that we would be challenged to take our jobs and our products to new heights.
One of the first aspects targeted were the online products, and that in itself was a bold move.
For more than a decade, CSPnet.com and CSP Daily News have been the leading sources of news for c-store retailers and suppliers. We post and report breaking news, analyze trends and put together category-focused reports with solid regularity and unmet insight aimed at keeping the industry up to date.
But if we've learned anything from the months we've put into developing our new online tools, it's that even No. 1 can get better.
During this time, we've been developing a new, easy-to-follow flow of news online, while creating new departments and segments to meet the needs of all our readers, from single-store independents to the largest chains and suppliers.
We've also built new partnerships while cementing ongoing bonds to bring our readers more and better coverage of the c-store industry. There are names you know well--OPIS, KSS and IRI--that will provide data and insight regularly. There are groundbreaking companies in fields from mystery shops to health-care provisions and in-store category development--StudyLogic, Service Intelligence and Holmes Murphy--that have valuable information to share. And there are personalities and companies--Walter Zimmermann, Dennis Ruben, Raymond James and others with insight into the inner workings of the petroleum market, real estate and more.
For the first time, these ahead-of-the-trends thinkers will be brought together online to help retailers better position their stores for success.
Yes, all the things you've come to love about CSP Daily News will continue: the news flashes, the exclusive and original reports and the one-of-a-kind category coverage. But you'll find much more on the new CSPnet and in the new CSP Daily News, including regular updates on wholesale gasoline prices, a retail fuel-price lookup tool, regularly updated category-management data, legislative and regulatory reports and also new takes on some of our popular magazine features, including Back Rumor and Grand Opening, with slideshows you won't find anywhere else.
Or, as a splashy conclusion might proclaim: Come see what you've been missing, and what's all new!
Haven't been to CSPnet.com lately? Now is the time to check it out! And if somehow you haven't been getting CSP Daily News in your inbox, now is the perfect time to sign up at www.cspnet.com/subscribe.
Or, as a splashy conclusion might proclaim: Come see what you've been missing, and what's all new!
Once you get a look at the new CSPnet, drop me a note at sholtz@cspnet.com: What do you like? What don't you like? What else would you like to see?
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