Realizing that there are many readers who turn first to the back of the magazine for Jim Lee’s Parting Words column, while you may be disappointed to find we have hijacked the column for this issue, we hope that you will not be disappointed by the story we share. In this issue celebrating the fifteenth anniversary of LP Magazine, with Jim Lee’s interview a focal point of the content, we decided to share our own Parting Words as we look at what the magazine has become and how it is positioned for the future.
Over the past fifteen years, and in particular in the last three years, our business strategy, like yours, has had to change. As we all become more digital, living online, dominated by social media, email, and apps, we have been dedicated in making sure you get what you need from us the way you need it. In just the last few years, we have transformed what was a website that was focused on housing our archived print editions to one that is a robust resource and platform for content including the addition of the first LP mobile app for LP news and education, and adding thousands of followers to our LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook pages and groups.
We have progressed well beyond what was originally just a print magazine to grow into a media company with multiple print and digital outputs and channels. Committed to delivering quality, original content and education while keeping on top of the top news in the industry, today LPM reaches tens of thousands of subscribers and supporters with daily e-newsletters, weekly recaps, mobile apps in the US and UK, print magazines in the US and abroad, social media channels, and LPM EyeOnLP video channels, all bringing you news, information, alerts, education, interviews, conference recaps, press releases, readership surveys, webinars, product knowledge, and more.
The where and the how we say it has had to expand based on what needs to be said, not only in keeping up with evolving technology and new social habits, but also because all of this change has created so much more content. As an industry, our roles have changed to include safety, risk, disaster recovery, IT security, and finance, all of which has added to our library of content as LPM has also expanded, making sure we are inclusive to the content needs as roles have expanded and new challenges and opportunities emerge.
The magazine comes from humble beginnings—a couple of guys who wanted to create a magazine for the loss prevention professional that could serve as an outlet to foster communication and education within the industry. It’s a simple idea that even today remains at the heart of what we do. This simplicity is reflected in our commitment to our products and in how we manage our business today.
While simple, it is still rewarding to see the impact that LPM has on so many people. It is amazing (and humbling) how, after fifteen years, we can go to almost any LP executive office in the country and to many solution providers and find the magazine in their lobbies or on their desks. It is almost always dog-eared or indexed with sticky notes, with leaders and peers sharing the magazine and passing it around, sharing the value it brings to them professionally. And for many it’s even personal, which is just how it is for us—it’s personal.
We take our commitment to you to heart, and we invest ourselves fully to being that resource for you. We see and we experience a connection with you, and it is reciprocated so easily as soon as we say “LPM.” We go to conferences and visit with LP professionals around the world, and almost immediately we hear another story of how LPM has helped them, how an article affected them, or how LPM supports their department.
We count every subscriber, every supporter, and every advertiser as a friend. We appreciate you, and we thank you for your support, your input, your advice, for sharing your best practices, for making your contributions, for your feedback, and most of all for your friendship. We share with each of you this fifteenth-year anniversary, and we say, with deepest sincerity, “Thank you.” We look forward to another fifteen years together.