FAIRCHILD'S EXECUTIVE TECHNOLOGY

David Merrefield

This is a special week at Fairchild Publications, the company of which SN is a unit, because it marks the inauguration of Fairchild's Executive Technology as a regular monthly publication.

Let's take a quick look at what the publication is, and at what makes it so special to all of us at Fairchild.

Most important is the subject matter of Fairchild's Executive Technology, namely its news and analysis of the burgeoning information side of retailing. In a very real way, it's information-driven knowledge that informs retailers about who their customers are and what they want from a retailing venue. There's not much risk in venturing the conviction that retailing executives who listen to what their data are saying will succeed, and those who don't will fail.

One important and new aspect of retail information technology is that very little of it remains the exclusive asset of one channel of trade. Lessons learned in channels as diverse as drug, supermarket, mass, consumer electronics, apparel and so on will very likely apply across that whole range of retailing.

And that's why Fairchild's Executive Technology is special to us: The publication is intended for numerous classes of trade and will receive massive circulation and readership by decision-making executives in virtually all classes of trade.

How is it possible? Fairchild's Executive Technology will be distributed with four of the market-leading periodicals published by Fairchild Publications. They are Women's Wear Daily, Daily News Record, Home Furnishings News and SN. In all, more than 60,000 corporate-level decision makers and others connected with the technology side of retailing will read Fairchild's Executive Technology. (The circulation figure represents just a portion of the total circulation of these publications.)

So, if you are among the many SN readers with a special interest in information technology, you will find a copy of Fairchild's Executive Technology center bound in this issue of SN. If you don't find it and are interested in this new information product, call (212) 630-4230, or send an e-mail to me as described below, to become a subscriber to Fairchild's Executive Technology. There is no charge to augment your current subscription to any of the journals referred to with Fairchild's Executive Technology.

And, when you see this month's issue of Fairchild's Executive Technology, you'll discover how it succeeds in its mission to span numerous classes of trade. The issue contains news articles about retailers as diverse as Nash Finch Co., Ultramar Diamond Shamrock, Sears, The Bon-Ton, Crate & Barrel, Strouds, CVS, Britches, Florsheim and several more.

Now, one more point about the new project that's of special interest to SN and SN readers: The editorial side of the project is being headed by Marc Millstein, Fairchild's group technology editor. SN readers may find the name familiar because Marc was the long-time editor of SN's two technology-oriented sections and continues as editorial director of the sections. Marc, with the editorial staff dedicated to this cross-publication technology effort, also contributes news and feature articles to the publications cited previously (plus Footwear News), bolstering their news coverage of technology. These news articles reach some 155,000 readers.

We hope you'll agree that the new Fairchild's Executive Technology publication is just the stuff you need to take a profitable jump ahead of your competition.