22 June 2010

Retailspeak, the global magazine covering Microsoft technology and solutions for the distribution and services sector, is getting a new look and a new name. The rebrand to Speak is creating great anticipation across the sector's community ahead of its launch on 19 July 2010.

Bill Gonzalez, Microsoft’s worldwide general manager for distribution and services, explains: “This is a really exciting time for the magazine, which has established itself as essential reading among our Microsoft customers and partners over the last eight years. The rebrand to Speak embraces our broader focus on new technologies, such as cloud-based services and mobility, as well as new sectors. Coverage now includes not just retail and hospitality, but the consumer goods and professional services industries. Speak also reflects how Microsoft and its partners are seeking to enhance collaboration and communication, enabling organisations across the globe to have a more effective dialogue with their customers and partners and connect all areas of the business.”

Speak will be fresher and much more appealing. The new size and new layout is designed to provide our audience with a more enjoyable and informative read

Toby Ingleton, Tudor Rose Speak will also boast a new design, as publisher Toby Ingleton explains: “All great magazine brands evolve, and Retailspeak is no exception. Speak will be fresher and much more appealing. The new size and new layout is designed to provide our audience with a more enjoyable and informative read.”

A small change to the page dimensions, to 210 x 280mm, gives the magazine more relative width. Ingleton explains: “We have found the new size to be more visually appealing and more accommodating to different types of content. And crucially, the new size translates much better to electronic media, allowing us to optimise our readers’ experience regardless of how they choose to consume the magazine.”

The magazine will continue to report on the biggest issues facing retail, distribution and services businesses today, and will be made up of news, features, case studies and opinion pieces including comment from Microsoft partners and customers across the globe. Ingleton adds: "With the addition of consumer goods and professional services, Speak will be able to include coverage of a much wider range of technology solutions from Microsoft and its partners. We encourage anyone within the Microsoft ecosystem to contact us with content ideas."

The change is part of a campaign to refresh all three Microsoft industry magazines published by Tudor Rose; Speak, Prime (for the manufacturing and resources sectors) and Finance on Windows (for the financial services industry).

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