Outsourcing Today’s CEO is intact, albeit fatigued after An initial quarter of activities that included an all-important visit to Europe in June to check in on our readers.

by Elliot Clark

Having survived my first quarter as the CEO of Outsourcing Today, I’ve had an opportunity to spend time with our customers and readers, and I wanted to discuss some of the exciting things that are changing at HRO Europe. I also wanted to write about what is NOT changing.

As some of our readers know, I acquired the properties of Outsourcing Today at the end of March, including HRO Today, HRO Europe, and FAO Today, three well-read trade publications serving the outsourcing industries. New ownership of any property inevitably leads to wholesale changes—some for the better, some for the worse. I hope ours will better serve you, the international HRO professional. And here’s what I have in mind.

First, let us talk about what is not changing. The same high-quality staff is leading our magazine. Publisher Jay Whitehead, Editor-In-Chief Andy Teng, and Managing Publisher Gale Tedeschi will continue at the helm of the best reporting and production staff in the HRO publication industry.

We will continue our laser-sharp focus on HRO. HR is the first two letters of HRO but not the whole story. We have a commitment to both the buyers and providers in the HRO community to not water down our coverage by becoming a more generic
HR publication.

We have seen other media properties redesigned for the HR generalist, and we strongly believe this does not work. We will not disappoint our audience by losing sight of the niche orientation that has made us the leading publication in HRO. At a time when the nature of HRO is changing—from lift-and-shift to HR transformation—our publication is needed more than ever for its continuing coverage on this and other important trends in the marketplace.

However, to serve you better, we will be making some investments. We are globalizing, we have added staff in Asia, and we are looking for offices in Europe (some of you may have seen Jay Whitehead and me sneaking around London and Brussels recently). We are initially leaning toward a location in Berkeley Square, London, and even though we are Yanks, we know it is pronounced B-A-R-K-L-E-Y.

Why are we doing this? Because our commitment to HRO as a global phenomenon requires our company to possess a global footprint. We also will be working to improve our editorial content, and we will be providing broader coverage on key areas of European HRO based on your feedback.

One other area of change is that we will be increasing our online offerings to provide our clients with more options and bundled programs that they can use to educate the market about the rapid advancements in HRO programs. Because, while the HRO market itself is changing, so is the information business, and print and electronic media are becoming inseparable. Readers want the colorful, high-end look and feel of a print publication, as well as the rapid access and searchable nature of online content. In addition, you’ll see more online-only stories, case studies, and interviews on our web site, www.hroeurope.com, so stay tuned for all the good stuff we’ll implement over the next few quarters.

In understanding the differences of the global landscape, we also make an unwavering commitment to all of our loyal HRO Europe readers. HRO Europe WILL BE its own magazine, and we ask for the support of the practitioner, advisor, and particularly the advertising provider community in doing so. We know that embedding HRO Europe as a supplement in HRO Today earlier this year was a mistake. (This was a decision of the prior owner and predates me.)

In my former role as the COO of a top global RPO provider, I have personally been part of outsourcing engagements in Europe and understand that it is a unique and vibrant market. HRO Europe is your voice, and it is a powerful part of the European HRO community. It is where 7,000 practitioners do research on the best providers and where 15,000 people a month go to view online content.

In this issue, we will cover the RPO market and offer case studies highlighting both European and North American programs and some comparisons. There have been dramatic changes in the progress of HRO in Europe, and in many ways the HRO buyers in Europe are showing a more discriminating approach to buying HRO than what we have seen in North America.

I also would like to encourage you to contact me and let us know how we can improve HRO Europe in print and online. We are excited, and we hope you are, too. I look forward to hearing from you.