Drug Topics to expand in the digital world

As that well-known song put it so aptly, there is a time for everything. For Drug Topics, it's time for us to plunge deeper into the digital world. Starting with our February issue, Drug Topics has decided to produce five editions every month-one print version and four digital ones. This means our magazine will now be published every month, rather than every two weeks. We believe this change will help us save on our printing costs, without sacrificing timeliness, since we will be supplemented by a digital edition every week.

Over the years, Drug Topics has been published at various frequencies. We started out as a monthly publication and moved to a weekly schedule in the 1930s. As of July 1943, we became a biweekly due to war shortages and remained at that frequency after the war. So we have been coming out as a fortnightly for the past 64 years.

For us to go from a biweekly to a monthly schedule for our print edition is a momentous decision. We think it will work out for the best. For those who like paper, you'll still have a hard copy that you can hold on to or pass along to others on your staff. For those who prefer reading by computer, our digital edition is just the ticket for you.

So far, the feedback to our frequency change is positive from many quarters. They understand why we are making this move and accept it, given the realities of today's business climate.

The response to our digital edition is also very heartening, as the results to our online survey indicate. If you have not yet seen our digital edition, which we launched on Oct. 8, please visit our Web site, http://www.drugtopics.com/, where all our back issues are archived. Our digital edition isn't just a carbon copy of our print version; it contains content not found in our magazine. While our print edition will contain our regular sections, along with the Health-System Edition and CE, our digital edition features a series of articles from pharmacist-lawyer Ken Baker about drug errors and how to avoid them as well as articles of interest to students. So if you're not taking advantage of our digital edition, you're missing out on a lot of exclusive content.

To access our digital edition, which is free of charge to pharmacists, students, and technicians, there are two ways to do so. You can get it by going to our Web site on your own volition, or we can e-mail it to you. If you're interested in the second option, you can subscribe to our digital edition at this link: http://https://www.advanstar.com/subscriptions/subscribe.asp?subid=232/.

Finally, our 150th anniversary, which took place last year, is now history. If you participated in our anniversary celebrations, such as by contributing items for our time capsule or for display at our conference show booths, a big thank you from the bottom of our hearts.