Fresh initiatives for a new year

Roman mythology called Janus the god of beginnings, a fitting namesake for the first month of our calendar year. Now that January is upon us, and we step into a new year, you’ll notice a few new items of note here at Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery.

editors note First off, we have now moved Business Buzz—our former home for industry, supplier and people news—from the printed edition of the magazine to appear exclusively online at snackandbakery.com. This allows us to prominently feature the latest industry developments in the most-timely fashion possible, informing our audience of these items while the news is at its peak of freshness. Watch our weekly eNewsletter, The Weekly Mix, for a new section highlighting these news items (and if you don’t currently receive The Weekly Mix, you can sign up at www.snackandbakery.com/eNewsletters). Continue to send us these items, and we’ll get them in front of our ever-expanding online audience.

Additionally, we have added an online table of contents to the magazine designed to provide a glimpse of what’s new on the website, including details related to our latest videos, a list of the most-read articles over the previous month and highlights of new content that’s coming down the pike. Our website serves as the online home for everything published in our printed magazine, but also provides a steady stream of online-exclusive content to help keep the snack and bakery industries abreast of all the vital information they need to best manage their businesses.

Also, you’ll likely notice that our monthly Market Trends articles have a new data feature to anchor our content, with sales information provided by IRI, Chicago—along with interpretation of that data. This component will further ground our ongoing trend-based new product analysis to illustrate how the categories we cover have performed over the previous year, highlighting product areas showing sound sales strength and pointing toward new, potentially profitable areas of R&D. Moving forward, Market Trends will continue to gain strength via an additional ingredient-focused coverage in every article to help provide a nicely well-rounded perspective of our featured product areas.

Finally, January will see the launch of our new monthly Category Focus emails. These category-specific emails will feature a collection of new products, ingredients, equipment and packaging related to the chosen product area, plus trend-based insights and analysis (for January, our focus is on extruded snacks, an area of lively new products and innovations). To learn more about sponsorship opportunities for these deep dives into targeted areas of product development, contact your sales representative (and review our updated editorial calendar at www.snackandbakery.com/advertise for a rundown of every monthly Category Focus topic slated for 2015).

After reviewing the lineup, reach out to us, passing along any information related to any of our upcoming topics that aligns with new business initiatives at your organization to see how it might be able to help us as we develop our content. One key to continued business success is keeping the industry informed of your capabilities and new products—whether ingredients, equipment, services, packaging or new finished products. Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery continues to provide new digital products, like these monthly Category Focus emails, in conjunction with fresh approaches to content development to help drive your business forward. Send us an email or give us a call to start these important discussions to see how we can best serve your needs and collectively drive the snack and bakery industries forward to new levels of success.

Douglas J. Peckenpaugh is Group Publisher of Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery, Dairy Foods, The National Provisioner, and Packaging Strategies for BNP Media. He has nearly three decades of publishing experience following the food industry from farm to fork, covering agriculture, ingredient processing, retail grocery branding, foodservice menu development, and food product R&D and manufacturing. He serves in leadership roles at his local suburban Chicago food pantry and church. Doug studied Professional and Creative Writing at Purdue University.

This webinar will examine variables factoring into nutritionally improved candy sales, including ingredients, label claims, and alternative sugars. Better-for-you options remain top of mind for consumers who are searching for indulgences, but in a healthier format.