Cometh the hour, cometh the magazine. If you are feeling a degree of trepidation about the year ahead, console yourself with the knowledge that in this swirling vortex of uncertainty that you find yourselves, there is one certainty: Property Week will be here to help you navigate your way through.
And good news readers, in keeping with the whole January self-improvement vibe, we have smartened the print offer up and given it what you might call a Croydon facelift.
Having launched our new website in 2017, we realised it was high time the print magazine ‘had some work done’ to align it with our digital offer and make it more modern, engaging and, well, nicer looking.
Those of you who, like me, don’t boast the best eyesight will notice that it’s easier to read – that’s because we have increased the point size. We have also refreshed and decluttered the design, moved the Leader comment to here from the middle of the book and rebadged the Professional section as Legal & Professional to more accurately reflect its content.
And we have introduced a number of new features. In News, you will be able to stay abreast of the latest proptech news via our Tech News column. In light of the ongoing challenges faced by retail, we will be assessing the fortunes of a retailer every week in Retailer Watch. And, apologies Separated at Birth fans, we have replaced it with This Week in, which will pick out stories from our back issues that resonate with events today (easier said than done after most of them went up in flames in the recent fire at a Shurgard self-storage unit in Croydon).
As you know, Property Week was an early mover on diversity – we launched our Open Plan campaign in 2014 – and one of the initiatives I am most proud of in our new-look magazine is our pledge to feature at least one female commentator a week in the Insight Comment section. Some will argue it is unfair to pillory a magazine for not featuring enough women. I disagree. We should be held to account, just as the industry is, and here’s the thing: we don’t need to manufacture diversity – there are more than enough female industry thought leaders for us to be able to confidently make that commitment.
I am delighted to say that the improvements are not confined to the print magazine. We will also be producing more video, blogs and podcasts this year and engaging with you more proactively via social media. So there is plenty for you to look forward to in Property Week.
Forecast for 2019
If only the same could be said of the nation’s future as we stumble towards Brexit or the black hole of an alternative that is a no-deal. Unsurprisingly, the industry is not its usual ebullient self as the clock ticks down and the politicians continue to recklessly pursue their own interests at the expense of everyone else’s. Our Brexit barometer, conducted online over the past few days, reveals that 60% of you are less optimistic than this time last year.
Brexit also weighed heavily on our industry experts’ minds as they delivered their predictions for what is our biggest and most diverse forecast to date. But as ever, as many are eyeing the opportunities as bemoaning the challenges. You can’t keep a good industry down…
Let us know what you think of the new look by tweeting @lizhamson or emailing liz.hamson@propertyweek.com
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