As publisher of Gear Technology, I spend a lot of time thinking about ways to improve the content of our magazine. For more than 24 years, this has been the magazine of the gear industry, and we keep it that way by continually trying to make it even more relevant, useful and important to you, our readers.

Over the years, we’ve conducted surveys, held focus groups and talked to many of you in person, by telephone or through e-mail. And while many of you have given us great suggestions through those formats, we’d like to open up our suggestion box.

I know what you’re thinking. You’re too busy. You have piles of work that need to get done before you can get to the piles of work that are under them. But if you can take just a few minutes of your time to help us make Gear Technology even better, the rewards will be a magazine that helps you even more than it already does. We want to improve how we bring you the information that helps you make better gears, be more productive and incorporate new technologies. In other words, investing a couple of minutes now will pay big dividends down the road.

To help get you thinking, we’ve prepared a list of questions for you. We’re not expecting anyone to write us a three-page essay reviewing our magazine (although, if you think you’ve got it in you, by all means, write away), but we hope we can spark some response by giving you some starting points.

So here goes.

Q–What subjects would you like us to cover?

Q–What types of companies would you like to see more information about?

Q–Which do you want to see less of?

Q–What types of articles are most useful to you?

Q–What technical article subjects are most important?

Q–Is it important to you that our technical articles are reviewed by experts before publication?

Q–Is it important to you that we don’t include advertisements on the pages where technical articles are featured?

Q–Are my Publisher’s Page editorials of interest to you?

Q–Do you use our website? Is it useful? What would improve it?

Q–Do you prefer the hard copy or the digital version?

Q–How often do you download E-GT, our digital version? Do you wait for the e-mail notification or do you check the site every day until it shows up?

Q–Have you seen our new magazine, Power Transmission Engineering? What do you think?

Q–How much time do you spend with the magazine each issue?

Q–Do you like the cover design?

Q–Do you like the overall design?

Q–Do you have a photo or image that would make a great cover?

Q–Do you have an article in you that needs to be written?

Q–Who at your company doesn’t receive the magazine but should be reading it?

Q–Have you passed this magazine along to one of your co-workers? Clients? Friends? Enemies? Why or why not?

Q–Do you read the advertisements?

Q–Which advertisements do you like the best? Which ones do you like the least?

Q–What kinds of products should be advertised here but aren’t?

Q–Are the news sections useful to you?

Q–Is our coverage of trade shows and events adequate?

Q–Are there events we should cover but haven’t? Are there events we cover too much?

Q–What kinds of product information would you rather see? Machine tools? Cutting tools? Software? Lubricants?

Q–Are the articles too technical?

Q–Are the articles too fluffy?

Q–What was the last article we ran that really made you think?

Q–Do you love the Addendum page?

Q–Why haven’t you submitted ideas for the Addendum page?

Q–Why haven’t you sent a letter to the editor?

Q–Does the information on our cover make you want to read the magazine?

Q–Do you ever use the Advertiser Index? Should there be more or less information there?

Q–Did you like my editorial on Vietnam?

Q–Did you like my editorial on the Graying of the Gear Industry in Jan/Feb 2008?

Q–Would you like to submit an editorial of your own for our Voices column?

Q–Are there any important industry trends we haven’t covered?

Q–Which article this year has been most important to you?

Q–Which article this year has been your least favorite?

Q–What features would you like to see on our website?

Q–Would you like to see a whole issue devoted to a particular focus?

Michael Goldstein,
Publisher & Editor-in-Chief
publisher@geartechnology.com