WhatTheyThink rebrands printed magazine from Printing News to WhatTheyThink to increase the opportunity for personalization and a more targeted content strategy.

With the changes in the global printing market, WhatTheyThink and Printing News are moving to a strategy of more personalization of content while still working within the confines of Postal Regulations that require magazines mailed with periodical rates to only version 20% of the magazine content.  In keeping with these requirements and playing into our strategy of growth in the areas of Labels & Packaging, Industrial Printing, Textiles and Marketing Technology, while satisfying our Wide-Format & Signage readers as well as our Printing News readers, it has become clear that we require a broader magazine brand for our print edition that can meet the needs of all these areas.

Beginning with the April edition, you will now see the WhatTheyThink brand as the print masthead logo and the cover imagery will be versioned for the segment receiving the publication with content highlighted clearly showing particular articles within the magazine for the demographically select group. This will assist us with a better, more informative, targeted magazine that satisfies Postal Regulations. At the same time, we will be working with regulators to attempt to drive regulatory change that will better reflect the current marketing opportunities magazine publishers could have if they were not restricted by outdated postal regulations.  

PrintingNews.com and WhatTheyThink.com will continue to be the associated web portals for our subscribers. WhatTheyThink.com continues to bring analytical data and thought leadership while PrintingNews.com focuses on product lead generation, aggregated content of all types including video, as well as the Top 100, Franchise Review and other studies. The theory of "Print Worthy" will continue to apply to the magazine content and source information from both sites. 

“Printing News is an incredible brand with an amazing legacy that will continue into the future. However, just as digital technology has changed our market, it has also opened up opportunities to version the print edition of the magazine with targeted messages and ad campaigns through the printed page.  We’re going to be pushing these limits over time, and this is a step in that direction.” says Kelley Holmes, Partner & VP.

“It has been a mission of ours to leverage the digital roots of WhatTheyThink to drive the same opportunities in Print.  We spend so much time in the industry covering digital printing techniques, new finishing opportunities and ways to make these products more valuable to the market that it only makes sense to apply these technologies to our own publications,” says Eric Vessels, Partner & President.

In addition to re-branding the magazine, WhatTheyThink also rolled out a refreshed logo that pays homage to the highly recognized "red question mark" logo while also showing excitement in moving forward along with the industry.

“It’s been 20 years and with all the change in our business as well as the industry at large, we felt the time was right for a fresh new look,” said Vessels.