Publisher’s Desk: Sharpening Our Focus for the Future

Sharpening Our Focus for the Future

If there’s one thing today’s market has forced real estate professionals to do, it’s to take a good, hard look at where they’re focusing their efforts. Tougher times are pressing both brokers and agents to figure out what it is they do best, start doing it even better, and thereby carve out a strong, competitive advantage on the playing field.

Over the course of the past year, we’ve done just that here at RISMedia. We are now ready to roll out in full-force our positioning as the multimedia source for best practices and business development strategies for today’s real estate professionals. You’ll see our magazine tagline this month has changed to reflect this identity-”where the industry turns for best practices.”

As many of you have realized while doing a little business and self analysis of your own, this exercise is not about recreating yourself and trying to become something completely different; it’s about clearly identifying who you are, what your strengths are, and how you can take that to the next level in order to better serve your audience.

At RISMedia, for example, we’ve been delivering the best practices of the pros to our readers for more than 28 years now, first via our magazine, then our educational and networking events, then our website and e-Newsletters, and now through a variety of multimedia platforms: videos, blogs, newsletters, webinars, white papers-even our very first book hitting the stands next month. This move to hone our focus and disseminate best practices through a multitude of new mediums is our way of raising the bar on what we’ve already been doing well for years-and finding new ways to do it better.

Whether a publisher, a real estate firm, or something in between, we can all take a cue from Century 21 and decide to raise our standards, set higher goals, achieve even more. Impossible in a down market? Not necessarily-it all depends on where and how you choose to focus your efforts. Done wisely, growth right now is attainable for all of us. On page 104, find out what strategies and best practices Tom Kunz and Century 21 are deploying to reach new levels of success.

Watch for the ongoing rollout of our best practices and business development platform within the pages of Real Estate magazine, at rismedia.com, and through a host of new technology, print and in-person mediums. We hope our efforts help bring you continued success in this challenging marketplace.

John E. Featherston
CEO & Publisher