Baking & Snack - May 2009 - 12

EDITORIAL
EDITORIAL STAFF
Executive Editor
Laurie Gorton
lgorton@sosland.com
Editor

Steve Berne
sberne@sosland.com

Managing Editor

Holly Bradley
hbradley@sosland.com

Tweet Talk

'm not that old (the half-century mark is just around the corner), but I do
remember receiving weekly hand-written letters from my parents during college.
I remember being in awe of seeing a bag phone in the 1980s, then buying my first
local-service cell phone and now my Blackberry with global access. I remember
my first year in publishing using 5-in. floppy disks when they were actually floppy and
a DOS-based writing program called XyWrite that crammed a maximum of 700KB on
each "floppy." Today, those rudimentary technologies and capacities are unfathomable
to teens and 20- or 30-somethings.
The days of handwritten communication are almost extinct, replaced with e-mail,
texting, blogging, posting, online linking, tweeting and all manner of electronic
communication for social and professional networking.
While printed books and newspapers have been around for hundreds of years, we
are now witnessing the demise of those institutions. Today, Amazon's Kindle is the
newest and easiest way to carry hundreds of books, newspapers and other media in
the palm of your hand. And downloading 1,000-page books takes seconds. In fact,
a growing number of colleges no longer supply hardbound textbooks. All a student
needs to do is download required reading to his or her Kindle.
For those of us in the print media, specifically the trade media, we are grappling
with these newer methods of communication to connect with our readers. Sosland
Publishing began printing its family of publications in 1921. For the past 30 years,
Baking & Snack has delivered its share of insight and information to readers. For all
those years, editors and publishers have networked and built relationships through the
magazine, and more personally through phone interviews, trade shows and conferences, and of course visits to bakeries and suppliers.
As a publishing company, we have stayed on the cutting edge of computer technology
when it is appropriate and when it offers a benefit to readers or advertisers. We were among
the first US trade publications (the first in the food industry) to offer digital delivery of
content including live links to advertisers and related information. Newsletters, webinars
and e-mail news alerts are among the more recent technologies we have embraced.
And now there is the revolution of social and professional networking Web sites such
as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Although Baking & Snack and its editors are ready and
able to participate, we wonder about the business and professional value of these forms of
electronic communication to readers of the magazine. What is the usage level by industry
executives and rising leaders? Do you find business or professional benefit from these
networks? Are there ways to use the technology to benefit you, your job, your company or
the industry? We would like to hear about them.
As we contemplate on how to embark on these activities, we want to be sure they
bring value to you, our readers, and are not just a false
gratification to ourselves or our sense of involvement.
Relationships in the industry are invaluable, and if we
can help foster these, we continue our mission.
Please let us know what you think. Your comments,
ideas and suggestions will be influential in our decisions. These are powerful tools if applied appropriately.
Your comments are equally powerful to us. I look forward to hearing from you.
- Steve Berne, editor
sberne@sosland.com

BAKING & SNACK / May 2009

Senior Associate Editor

Jennifer Barnett Fox
jfox@sosland.com

Associate Editor

Kimberlie Clyma
kclyma@sosland.com

Senior Editor

Shane Whitaker
swhitaker@sosland.com

Contributing Editors:

Columnists:

Donna Berry
Rebeca López-García
Richard F. Stier
Jim Kline
jkline@theensolgroup.com
Theresa Cogswell
bakercogs@sbcglobal.net
Anne Giesecke, Ph. D.
info@a-dpolicyanalysis.com

DESIGN STAFF
Design Services Manager

Sadowna Conarroe

Designer

Jennifer Cheek

Manager of Advertising Design
Classified Ad Layout

Becky White

Christina Sullivan

Design Team Assistant

Steve Piatt

PUBLISHING STAFF
Chairman
Charles S. Sosland
Vice-chairman
L. Joshua Sosland
President
Mark Sabo
Publishing Director
G. Michael Gude
Publisher
Paul Lattan
Vice-President,
Chief Financial Officer
Melanie Hepperly
Audience Development Director Don Keating
Advertising Manager
Nora Wages
Ad Materials Coordinator
Debbie Maniez
Digital Systems Analyst
Marj Potts
Circulation Manager
Judy Arnone
Director of E-Business
Director of On-line
Advertising & Promotions
Promotions Manager

Mark Serres
Carrie Fluegge
Alissa Voran

Editorial and Midwest Sales Office
4800 Main St., Suite 100, Kansas City, MO 64112
Phone: (816) 756-1000; Fax: (816) 756-0494
E-mail: BakingSnack@sosland.com
Internet: http://www.bakingbusiness.com

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PURCHASING S w I N A0 .

BAKING & SNACK is distributed free-of-charge to
qualiﬁed readers with managerial responsibilities in the
baking and snack food industries. SUBSCRIPTIONS: To
apply, ﬁll in and mail the request form in this issue. For
non-qualiﬁed readers,U.S.subscriptions are accepted at
$36 per year. Other Canadian and foreign subscriptions
(from outside the territory of the U.S.and its possessions)
are accepted at $72 per year. BAKING & SNACK assumes
no responsibility for the validity of claims in items
reported. ©2009 Sosland Publishing Co. , a division of
Sosland Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents without
written permission is prohibited. Printed in U.S.A.

http://www.bakingbusiness.com

Baking & Snack - May 2009

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Baking & Snack - May 2009