The Year of Change... John Van Horn, Editor and Publisher


In the year since I last wrote this letter for our People


and Products in Parking Directory, Parking Today has seen change in every area of our company. People have changed, our offices have changed, and even the way we present news and comment about parking is undergoing major changes. This year has seen the departure of two of our most


trusted and loyal employees. Sandra and Pat have been with me since the beginning. They have worked hard, put up with my foibles, and have been and remain good friends.We miss them every day. We welcome a new member of our marketing staff.


Kelley Havener, who lives in Phoenix, has come on board to supportMarcy in her sales efforts. For those of youwho advertise in Parking Today you most likely have done busi- ness with Kelley. She is bright, quick on her feet, and has a smile you can hear through the phone.Welcome Kelley. Marcy has succeeded admirably under difficult cir-


cumstances. It’s a hard business world out there, and she handles itwith good humor and persistence. Thanks kiddo. The rest of our crew has undergone changes, but of a


different sort.We have taken some office space near LAX and now have a permanent home. Andy, Joyce, and I trav- el the rigors of LA freeways and surface streets every day to meet and actually see each other. Marcy flies in peri- odically formeetings and I have amore businesslike place for meetings with Shelly, Andy, and Sue. I’ve been told that while meeting under a pepper tree


is refreshing and fun, it can be distracting.We have found that sitting around a table in an office setting gives us focus, and frankly, much shorter meetings. Virtual compa- nies are fine, but nothing replaces face to face discus- sions. As our company became more complex, brain- storming and problem solving could no longer be relegat- ed to email and phonecalls. Perhaps the biggest changewe are facing is using the


full power of the internet to bring youmuchmore real time information and comment about the parking industry. Magazines are not timely. An event takes place in May and you read about it in July. As much as we may not like it, this is the real world and we ignore it at our peril. So Parking Today has begun embracing the tools of


the internet to provide information not only in almost real time, but also to allow and frankly encourage comment (often negative) about parking issues. The social media spawned by the internet, such as Facebook, blogs and Twitter are tailor made for informa-


4


tion dissemination and discussion. I have been stunned at howmany of you readmy blogs (over 6,000 views amonth) and how popular our Facebook pages have become after only a couple of months online. We have nearly 2,400 views and comments each month on our Facebook page. Does thismean that Parking Today, in its current form,


is going away? Absolutely not. However, it doesmean that we can provide more extensive coverage of certain parts of our industry that may not be appropriate in the printed form. Articles or even fiction that are too long for a maga- zine can be summarized in print but then provided uncut online. You can decide what you want to pursue, what fits your field of interest.We can also “link” to other sources of information, giving you more choices and better cover- age than would have been possible even a decade ago. Webmaster Suda has focused on building our web


sites so that I can select articles of interest and Joyce can quickly, on a daily basis, update the site, my blog, Twitter, and Facebook. If youwant to knowwhat’s going on, simply check parkingtoday.com daily and you will be up to date. Most of this is driven by Andy, who ensures it all runs


smoothly. As operations director, he has his fingers in vir- tually every part of what we do, ensuring that we deliver content in a form that is easy to use and as up to the moment as possible. This has not been the easiest year for our industry. I


look to Sue to ensure bills are paid and money collected. It’s a difficult task andweworkwith both vendors and cus- tomers to keep it in balance. Thanks Sue. Then there’s Shelly, Rad, and Carla. They make the


magazine look good, get it to our printer, and put up with an often irascible editor who likes to change headlines at the last minute and often isn’t sure about the color or brightness of a certain picture. And we must not forget Melissa – her calm, focused


proofing and editing has caught many an error, most of them mine. Since she has been on the job, our error factor has gone down to near zero. Parking Today is a teameffort. These elevenwonderful


people bring parking content to you everymonth. Thanks to them, and to you. I remember every day that if thereweren’t people like you to create an industry, we would have nothing to say, and no one to whom to say it.


People and Products in Parking Directory • www.parkingtoday.com


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