Welcome to the new FoodService Director

Twenty-five years ago FoodService Director published its first issue. On this silver anniversary, we’re pleased to unveil the all new FSD.

It’s been six years since this magazine last received a face-lift, and in those years much has changed. Food-related media has skyrocketed. Food trucks took to the streets. Gluten free has replaced sustainability as the industry’s hot topic. Smartphones and tablets grace the hands of even your youngest customers. And, perhaps the biggest influencer of all, the economy crashed.

Non-commercial foodservice has changed, and the pages of this magazine have been redesigned to reflect your changing—and growing—job responsibilities.

Your time is precious. With an ever-increasing to-do list, we understand that you often don’t have an hour or two to peruse the pages of a magazine. With that in mind, we’ve made several significant changes to the way we provide information to you. In the front of the book you’ll find several short stories on each page. These items are designed to give you the information you need to know in an easily digestible format.

Our front-of-book sections include:

We recognize that some stories can’t be told in that quick-hitting format, so we’ve bolstered our feature well. In this section you’ll find our cover stories, FSD of the Month and Under 30, our popular column profiling the rising industry stars. New to the magazine is the analysis story. This is where we’ll investigate and dig deep into the issues that are most affecting foodservice. These stories aren’t just the who and what of an issue; it’s about the why, with a particular emphasis on how these topics will influence your operations in the months and years to come.

Perhaps the biggest change you’ll notice is in our food pages. We hear every day how customers are more food and nutrition savvy than they were even 10 years ago. You’ve been tasked with elevating your programs to meet those increasing demands. So we’re also upping our game. We’ve increased our breadth of coverage greatly in the food pages. We’re continuing our popular Menu Strategies and Ingredients stories, but we’ve added some exciting new features:

Speaking of online columns, look for more integration between our print and online properties. We know just how important online resources are to doing your job well, so we’ll be beefing up our online reservoir. Whenever you see a red callout on the pages, that’s your cue that there’s an online component to that story. For example, many of our food pages have red callouts for recipes. We’ve transferred most of our recipes online because we feel that’s an easier way to search—and then actually use—those recipes in your operation.

Last, but certainly not least, you’ll notice the pages of FoodService Director have a new, clean and modern look. We’ve updated our color scheme and fonts to provide you with a more easily read product. We’ve added more art and illustrations to our pages. Foodservice is a visual industry, and the pages of our magazine have been redesigned to reflect that through visual storytelling. We’ve also revamped our cover treatment, starting with an updated, more modern logo. We’re featuring a more dominant cover image in an open, airy look. This treatment is similar to one you’d see on magazines on the newsstand. We’re also putting more emphasis on our FSDs of the Month to highlight their hard work and dedication.

As we move into the next 25 years of our publishing history, we’d like to thank you, our readers, for your loyalty, support and sharing your stories with us.