FIRST WORD: Bigger and Better

Jack Rogers, Editor in Chief, Business Facilities

From the January/February 2012 issue

We are welcoming in 2012 with a new double-issue format and schedule for Business Facilities. Our magazine now will appear six times each year (including our annual Site Seekers’ Guide, which remains our November/December stalwart).

Fewer issues doesn’t mean less coverage of the critical subjects central to economic development and site selection—to the contrary, the larger format will enable us to deliver our most comprehensive package of insightful features to date. We also will be introducing some new departments that will expand the scope of our coverage, while maintaining the level of expertise you have come to expect from a national publication that has been an industry leader for four decades.

As usual, we open this year’s volume with our annual Economic Development Deal of the Year and State of the Year awards. The field was highly competitive, with nearly two dozen big-ticket projects vying for top honors, and several states worthy of contention for the big prize. Our congratulations go to Utah, our State of the Year standard-bearer, and to the hard-working folks in Kentucky, South Carolina and Arizona who wowed our blue-ribbon panel with an impressive tour de force of innovative project development. In our view, there were no losers in this year’s awards competition.

On these pages, you will find the best of the best—those who aimed to get bigger and better. Bravo to all.