New century, new changes

WHILST the hype and glamour surrounding our entry into the new Millennium seems an age ago now this is the first MEDAL NEWS of the 21st century and the Token Publishing Team would like to extend an albeit belated Happy New Year to all our readers. For both individuals and companies a new year can often herald changes both large and small and Token Publishing Ltd is no exception; as you may have noticed from the credits on page 3 of this issue, the year 2000 has brought about a new look to the editorial team. Whilst the old faces still remain, the roles they play within the organisation have changed. John Sly, who has been our Editor for nearly three years, now takes on the mantle of Features Editor, commissioning articles, medal rolls, etc., as well as covering the London market scene, rather than having to worry about the nuts and bolts of production. The final editing and the magazine make-up will now be shared between myself as Managing Editor, our new Editorial Assistant Amy Smith, and Production Assistant Ruth Coleman. Diana Birch, who has been with the magazine since its inception remains as Executive Editor. However, it is not just in the production department that changes have been made and whilst Carol Hartman remains as overall Advertising Director the actual selling of display and semi-display advertising has now been passed to Cynosure - an Exeter-based agency. Their input will help us to reach a wider space-buying audience which will bring in extra revenue which in turn will enable us to improve the magazine over the coming months. The classified advertising, which of course is free for our regular subscribers will still be handled by Carol in our Honiton office. The sales and marketing side of the magazine stays the same and subscribers will be pleased to hear that Sarah Pritchard remains as Subscription Controller, whilst Philip Mussell, a familiar face at most of the Medal Fairs up and down the country, continues in his role as Marketing Manager. All these changes will inevitably have an affect on the magazine - all for the better we can assure you! Away from the grind of dotting the i's and crossing the t's John Sly will be able to devote more time to searching out articles in the same vein as the superb offerings he has brought to MEDAL NEWS since he joined the team and Carol Hartman, now freed from the eternal and infernal telephone will join myself and Amy working on new and exciting projects for our readers. We have a number of ideas we will be working on in the coming months but, as always, we would also love to hear from you as to what you would like to see within the pages of your magazine, whether regarding articles, features or whole new areas to explore. We value the comments of our readers and look forward in this new century to publishing more of the things you want to see.