From The Editor

The Times Are a Changin'

Jeff James

Effective with the November 2009 issue, TechNet Magazine will no longer be offered as a print publication.  It wasn’t an easy decision to make, and all of us involved with the magazine were sad to see the print format go. That said, we’re also excited about what the future holds for TechNet Magazine as an online-only publication.

I’m also excited to be joining TechNet Magazine as the new editor in chief. I’ve been covering computers and technology since 1990, and was most recently the editor in chief of Windows IT Pro magazine. I’m a certified car nut and part-time auto reviewer, I think the Commodore Amiga was one of the best computers of any era (a view shared by my boss and fellow Amiga-aficionado Doug Barney), and believe that Windows 7 is the best OS to emerge from the LEGO-festooned halls of Redmond in more than a decade. (Ever read Douglas Coupland’s “Microserfs”?) Speaking of LEGO, I spent seven years at the LEGO Group as a software producer, editorial director and corporate community relations manager.

I consider myself lucky to have spoken with and learned from hundreds of IT professionals over the years, and I’m looking forward to doing the same here. Quality content that helps IT professionals do their jobs more effectively has always been a hallmark of TechNet Magazine.

We’ll be making some significant changes to technetmagazine.com over the next few months, beginning with some modest layout changes with this month’s columns and articles. We’ll still be publishing the same high-quality technical content you’ve come to expect from TechNet Magazine, and you’ll still be seeing regular updates from your favorite columnists, including Don Jones, Paul S. Randal, Greg Steen, Henrik Walther, Greg Shields, Pav Cherny, Lance Whitney and more.

As we make this transition to an online-only format, we’re hoping to engage and communicate with our readers even more closely. We’ve created a new TechNet Magazine group on LinkedIn, you can find us on Twitter at Twitter.com/TechNetMag, and even more community features will be added to the TechNet Magazine Web site in months to come. We don’t sit in an ivory tower here, so we’d love to get your feedback and input on what you’d like to see in an online-only TechNet Magazine. We’ve also created a TechNet Magazine online survey we’d encourage you to complete, which you can find here

I’d also like to hear directly from readers as much as possible, so please feel free to drop me an e-mail at jjames@1105media.com, follow me on Twitter at Twitter.com/jeffjames3 or give me a call at 970-587-9321. I’d be more than happy to discuss what you’d like to see in future issues of TechNet Magazine, what you don’t like about something you’ve read, or if you’d like to discuss whether the New Orleans Saints will make it to the Super Bowl. (They will, in case you’re curious.)

Note: As a reminder, TechNet Magazine print subscribers are also entitled to a free digital subscription to Redmond magazine. You can find out more details of this offer at Redmondmag.com/technet.

Jeff Jamesis editor in chief of TechNet Magazine*, and was formerly the editor in chief of* Windows IT Pro magazine. He’s been writing about computers and technology since 1990.