Voicing an opinion

We must be doing something right. One of our readers recently informed us that he's been reading PLAYTHINGS since 1938. "Except for 1944 and 1945 when I was in the Signal Corps, copying Japanese Radio Code, I have devoured every issue of PLAYTHINGS from the start," he writes us.

The magazine, says our steadfast subscriber, is the "first thing I look at when my mailbox brings it to me," adding that he finds it "so much better" than PLAYTHINGS competition.

Oh, sure. There are probably other magazines out there that can boast having a subscriber for some 60 years; but certainly not another trade magazine in our niche.

So what keeps readers like Fred Kroll (quoted above), developer of the game Trouble, subscribing to PLAYTHINGS year after year, keeping the magazine number one in its market?

Content…as in, substance.

For almost a century, PLAYTHINGS has reflected the reality and diversity of the marketplace for children's playthings. Through proactive research, we've consistently brought to our readership, whose numbers include both retailers and manufacturers, reporting that is market focused and unbiased.

And these days, thanks to technology, our coverage is no longer bound by the page, so to speak. We now bring our audience vital industry information in three separate vehicles.

Complementing market coverage in the monthly magazine, playthings.com provides readers with breaking news coverage, the latest industry buzz, surveys, new product information and more. Our weekly e-newsletter, PLAYTHINGS Extra further enhances our opportunity for coverage with additional news and features delivered directly to subscribers' e-mailboxes.

We certainly do believe this is the information era! And we expect to remain the market leader in this era, as we were in the prohibition era and in the cold war era.

And speaking of enhancements, this summer we will launch a regular department to provide a dialogue for our readers. Yes, we want to share comments like Fred Kroll's, as well as observations and criticisms.

We invite you to start sending us a paragraph or two of opinion, interpretation or just plain musing about industry trends, articles in PLAYTHINGS, manufacturing or retailing. If you pose a question, we'll endeavor to get the answer. Feel free to forward your thoughts to our managing editor Frank Pittarese at fpittarese@cahners.com (and, of course, snail mail is acceptable, too).

As the market leader, PLAYTHINGS has been evolving successfully for 98 years. Now we want to be as interactive as the toys we cover!