Americas Quarterly - Winter 2012

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Thanks to our tech-savvy AQ team, the journal and our web presence have managed to stay ahead of the curve in the use of new communications technology, including social media.

With this issue we complete the fifth year of Americas Quarterly. In earlier issues, I have noted how the amazing work of our edito- rial team—past and present—has made it possible for us to reach this landmark; but if you’ll allow me some additional editor’s license, I’d like to underline why this anniversary is so important to us and, we believe, to our readers.

At a time when everyone was declaring the death of print, and in the midst of an economic downturn, we’ve demonstrated that a journal devoted to stimulating debate and knowledge about the Americas can not only survive but fill a niche that had unfortunately gone too long unfilled. Reader support and engagement have been crucial. Equally important has been the confidence of our advertisers (all of whom you’ll see in these pages) and the commitment of the Tinker, Ford and GE Foundations. To all of them—and to you—we express our heartfelt thanks. We look for ward to continuing to earn your trust and support.

But we know that publishing a journal requires us to stay abreast of critical changes and evolving needs. As part of our self-evaluation process in our fifth year, we have reached out to editorial board members, friends and, of course, our readers for ideas and suggestions about how to make both the print and online editions of AQ relevant to their interests.

Here’s what we’ve discovered. Our friends in the academic community are increasingly using the journal in their classrooms—and they want more help from us in this regard. Many readers who took our online survey are pleased to have access to AQ content and developing news on the web—but they want more multimedia content. We agree. In this issue and online you will see the results.

In response to reader requests to diversify each print
edition, we have built out our UpFront section. In-
tended originally as a section that would offer articles
and analysis on news and breaking events as a balance
to the theme-specific Feature section, we are now add-
ing more—and longer—articles.