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Mass High Tech has been a great supporter of Mass Innovation Nights since the get-go and last night we were able to host their new product. Mass Innovation Nights attendees were able to get a first look at the redesigned magazine. We caught up with Doug Banks, the MHT editor-in-chief and talked to him about their new product.
MIN – What’s the one thing most people don’t know about Mass High Tech?
DB – I think most people are unaware of just how much news we report each day. I am often asked by print subscribers whether we report daily news online. And people who subscribe to our daily email news roundups or our RSS feeds often don’t know that we have a print publication that has been winning regional and national design awards for several years running. People get their news the way they want it, and habits die hard.
MIN — What’s different about the new design?
DB — The new design is on a smaller page, physically, and a brighter white stock, which allows us to run photos and better, more interesting layouts. It’s much more magaziney, in feeling and tone. Also, the issues are now themed, so the first issue is almost exclusively about cleantech companies, trends, insights, etc. The next one is on “growth strategies” and related topics, such as fast-growth, hiring challenges, etc.
MIN — When was the last time MHT was redesigned? (Or had a major change?)
DB — We redesigned the newspaper in 2006 after having been within the same design since 1998 or ‘99. Do you remember the old green and yellow covers? The blue logo and change to “MHT” from Mass High Tech happened at that time, and it was an overwhelmingly positive change. We have redesigned our website twice since I became editor in 2005, most recently last year when we built a whole new web site at www.masshightech.com.
MIN — What does the future hold for MHT? Do you expect to phase out print?
DB – I think if anyone in the news business tries to tell you what the future holds, then they’re lying to you. Nobody knows what’s happening to newspapers and print magazines. The ways that news and information gets
distributed is changing constantly…and that’s why we keep changing with it. As for phasing out print, believe it or not, I don’t expect to. I really don¹t. At least not in the short term. That said, if readers say they just don’t want to receive a print edition of MHT, then we would adjust to that. But that hasn’t happened yet, and I don’t expect that it will for a while.
MIN — Often when companies or brands go through a redesign, it means little beyond a look and feel change. There isn’t a lot of substance behind it. What is the major benefit to this change for your readers?
DB — I think that’s right ‹ a lot of rebranding, etc., really is mostly surface stuff. We’re trying to avoid that. Careful readers of MHT will notice several changes inherent in our new redesign and new frequency. We are publishing more Q&As, for one thing. Getting more voices into the publication than ever, and making sure those voices are in the first-person.
We’re also experimenting with new forms of stories. For example, our cover story this week isn’t just a news story…we asked cleantech executives what cleantech industry they would invest in other than the one they’re in. So a
solar-panel CEO told us why he’d invest in wind, but then a wind-power CTO told us why he likes the solar business. So, it really is a philosophical change, a different way of looking at how we present the news…not just plopping something onto a page. Readers’ attention spans just won’t tolerate that kind of indifference.
MIN — The new MHT looks great and there are lots of interesting stories in the publication. Check it out. We did!
Meanwhile, our local entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs will be interested in these two upcoming items:
