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It is with pleasure that I begin as editor in chief of Psychiatric News with this issue. I am deeply honored that the Board of Trustees selected me to follow the tenure of Dr. Robert Campbell. Dr. Campbell's hard work for the past 15 years has helped shape Psychiatric News into a respected, widely read publication. He deserves our gratitude for his long-standing dedication and commitment to Psychiatric News and APA. In particular, I appreciate his cooperation during this interim period and the wonderful qualities of his thoughtful counsel and delightful humor.
In preparation for my new role, I have been seeking ideas from many members of APA. There is no shortage of opinions on what is good or not so good about Psychiatric News. The problem for this editor is that many of these comments are contradictory: "Too much text; it is boring" "Too much color; it looks like a supermarket tabloid instead of a professional publication." "Articles are too long." "Not enough in-depth reporting." "Attack managed care." "Don't offend our members who work for managed care." It is clear that our readers are a diverse group who often hold conflicting views of what is desirable. The challenge of satisfying this diversity of opinions as well as the diversity of interests is daunting. Nevertheless, the staff and I will make every effort to produce a newspaper that has the highest journalistic standards and meets the needs of our readers, knowing that we cannot expect to please everyone.
During the next few months as we continue to build on Dr. Campbell's work, you will see a number of changes taking place. We will be doing a readership survey in the near future to establish a basis for these changes, and we will establish a plan for obtaining regular reader feedback. We are working on a redesign of the paper to make the paper easier to read and to make articles more accessible for readers. We will immediately move to help readers by including Internet addresses to facilitate locating background information and documents. We will use the results of our readership survey to further guide us in determining the content of Psychiatric News.
I am committed to making this paper serve the interests of the members of APA. You can help shape the future of the paper by forwarding your ideas and comments to me. I can be reached via e-mail at Jaspk@aol.com. You may send a fax to (202) 682-6031. You may write to me in care of APA. You may call me at (415) 924-6808. I look forward to a mutually rewarding partnership with you, the readers of Psychiatric News.
James Krajeski, M.D.
Editor in Chief