As I wrote to readers this week, we are in the process of combining Display Monitor and Large Display Report into a new publication, Large Display Monitor (the creativity of the naming is astounding, isn’t it?). The plan is to release the new issue next week as the LDR has been on a monthly cycle and the last issue will be created this weekend (if you missed the mail, let me know and we’ll resend it to you). That makes this my last editorial for Display Monitor under its current name. Of course, it also means that in the future, once the Mobile Display Report has its last issue on the 15th of September, I will also have to write an editorial every week for Mobile Display Monitor (MDM).
Having a second newsletter really solves a problem that we have had for a long time. On the one hand, the majority of our readers and subscribers are involved with large displays – in notebooks, desktop monitors, public displays and projectors, etc. On the other hand, every display business is impacted by mobile devices – whether that means the use of tablets in corporates and ensuring that monitors can see what is on tablets, whether it means connectivity in meeting rooms or whether it means getting potential viewers to look up from their own devices to view public displays.
So, in recent years we have had to boost our coverage of mobile applications, but that is tricky without becoming dominated by mobility. Having two titles means that we have a better chance of offering the level of depth that you might need. Large Display Monitor will continue to include a very brief round-up of stories that may have an impact on large displays and MDM will carry news in large displays that may impact mobile devices and applications.
As I mentioned in my letter to subscribers, I think that the strength of Display Monitor has been to deliver a timely, thorough and digestible view of the world from a particular point of view. The MDR & LDR have had really good “value added” content from its analysts. The aim with the new titles will be to create a combination of both. That will be a challenge, but one that I’m looking forward to.
Display Monitor has always had a concentration on Europe. MDR and LDR have covered the US. However, it is a truism that “the world is getting smaller” and what happens at CES matters to Europe, while the US TV market will be affected by what happens at IFA. So we will open up to more US news, but it will be an addition, not a substitution. Europe remains of equal importance for us.
Anybody involved in the media in the UK is heavily influenced by the BBC. The purpose of the BBC is to “entertain, inform and educate” and this phrase is heavily identified with Lord Reith, the founding head of the BBC. For many years, I have been quoting this in Display Monitor team meetings. My view of the role of Display Monitor is to inform, educate and entertain – in that order.
That will continue to be our mantra with a significant emphasis on improving the education and entertain parts.
It seems appropriate that in doing my “due diligence” for this article, I found that the phrase “entertain, inform and educate” came from David Sarnoff, the Russian-born US TV pioneer, although Reith made it his own. It somehow seems appropriate this week to be thinking of an idea that originated from a Russian emigré in the US being developed further in Europe!
Bob
