As executive editor of this publication, I do my best to fulfill our mission of making sure you receive timely, accurate information that will help you do your job better. Each day, I have to make choices about which topics we give coverage to in the magazine.

Those decisions are made with your information needs in mind. But my task has become more difficult as logistics has stretched its boundaries further and further beyond transportation and warehousing activities.

As a logistics professional today, you need to know about the software developments and other technologies that are both driving and enabling supply chain strategies. You have to understand the general trends in corporate strategy and the specific industry trends that often influence logistics practices. And you need to know how to work in sync with other internal functions—purchasing, manufacturing, and marketing, for example—as well as with your trading partners to marshal inventories to meet customer demand.

Your information needs can also be very specific. They vary from industry to industry, and from company to company. Your job responsibilities, too, have an impact on what you need to know. Some of you manage private fleets while others oversee distribution to the far corners of the earth. Some manage warehouse operations, facing the daily challenge of keeping workers productive and focused, while others use software to chart optimal distribution networks. It's a real challenge to meet such diverse and individual needs.

That's the big picture. To give you the information you want and to serve you better, we need to get down to specifics. Are you more interested in reading a story on automatic identification technology in the warehouse than one dealing with government initiatives to secure the nation's borders? Would you rather read an item about the Surface Transportation Board's latest decisions than read a short description of a new forklift truck? Would you prefer economic analysis about rising inventory costs to a story detailing how to save money on an airfreight shipment? Would you find an article containing tips on truckload consolidation more useful than one about ergonomic consideratons when spec'ing equipment for a warehouse or distribution center?

To find out the answers, we need your feedback, whether positive or negative. Without your input, we can't be certain that our choices about what to feature in this magazine's pages are the ones that benefit the majority of our readers.

That's why we've set up a new Web site to gather feedback from you, the reader. Starting this month, you can go to www.lmsurveys.com and tell us what you think. There you'll find a series of multiple-choice questions that ask you to rate the value of the articles appearing in the current month's issue. I promise it will take you two minutes or less to complete the survey.

We know all of you are very busy in this era of increasing responsibilities and shrinking staffs. Still, we'd greatly appreciate it if each month after our publication arrives at your office and you've had a chance to read it, you would take a couple of minutes to give us your thoughts on our content.

Please be candid in your assessment of what we do. We welcome constructive criticism as much as we do praise. With your feedback, we can do a better job of giving you information that is truly valuable.

In short, help us help you.