Before you go into a blind panic, without revealing too much of the new look, I can answer a few questions here and now.

Yes, we will still be available in print, and yes, we will still be a weekly magazine. So that’s the two main elephants gently escorted out of the room.

However, there will be a substantial number of changes in terms of look, feel and content, with a raft of new elements appearing, some moving online or even disappearing altogether in a handful of cases.

But all of the these changes are based on good, old-fashioned research gleaned from a series of face-to-face and telephone interviews and the detailed online survey that we launched late last year.

The goal of the research was simple, to get a better understanding of what your, our readers, information and business needs are and the challenges and opportunities you face. All of this was incredibly useful in formulating how we can help you rise to the challenges, realise those opportunities and deliver that information in a way that is ‘fit for purpose’.

There’s no doubt that the print industry is going through a period of rapid change, and it would be remiss if we didn’t mirror that evolution in the pages of PrintWeek by refreshing the content periodically.

In many respects, PrintWeek faces some of the same challenges as the industry at large, particularly in regard to the threat/opportunity, depending on your point of view, represented by digital media.

PrintWeek is in the enviable position of having a massively popular website, so I’m firmly in the ‘opportunity’ camp, but the challenge this represents is how do we ensure that we still give the people that regularly use the website a reason to read the magazine by not simply duplicating content, while not forgetting the 40% of you that don’t use the website regularly.

The good news is that our research shows that even our loyal online users still want a printed magazine, our challenge is just to make PrintWeek fit for the future by ensuring that print and online are complementary – and that evolution starts next week. I for one can’t wait.