It seemed to work as an editorial planning tool because, well, it was the only tool we had. While readership surveys and face-to-face roundtables will still play an important role in measuring reader need, the LM edit staff is now sitting with a pretty cool new way of helping us fine-tune our direction and execute against all of our reader input. Let me give you quick glimpse into how “reader-habit” visibility is changing.

Right now, as I’m writing this column, I’m looking at my online metrics dashboard. It’s telling me that this morning between 9:00 a.m. and noon, 323 readers spent time online reading “Borders writes the book on LTL rapport,” our feature on how Fred Boehler, the bookseller’s vice president of logistics, proved that long-term partnerships with core carriers really do pay off.

While we’ve known for years that shippers flock to cost containment case studies, my new metrics are certainly validating our old-fashion research.

However, I also see that “Moving into the House of Lean,” last month’s feature in which lean logistics Guru Robert Martichenko prepared shippers for a daunting cultural transformation, is the most-read feature online during the past two weeks. We knew many savvy shippers have embarked on the lean journey, but we didn’t anticipate just how many shippers would be looking for deeper insight into lean thinking. In turn, edit planning is being finely tuned to meet these interests in print, online, and in our continuing education initiatives. And we’re just scratching the surface.

SupplyChainDaily.com

While improved visibility has afforded us new ways to better serve the reader from the edit side, we’ve launched a new online service to help busy logistics and supply chain professionals stay on top of breaking news that’s personalized to their interests and reading habits.

SupplyChainDaily.com (SCD) is our adaptive personalization engine that delivers individually-relevant content on a daily basis from more than 200 aggregated RSS feeds. Once you register, you pick the various supply chain categories you’d like to receive, and, based on the interest profile you set up, the stories are sent to you on a daily basis.

But that’s not the cool part. Based on what you read and don’t read, likes and dislikes, SCD’s adaptive technology continually learns your interests and sends you only the content that’s most relevant to you. The longer you use SCD, the more it learns your specific interests and your daily feed becomes more and more personalized, changing as your interests change. For music buffs, it’s very similar to www.pandora.com, where, by clicking on thumbs up/thumbs down, it learns your musical taste and plays only what you like.

Give www.supplychaindaily.com a shot and let me know what you think.

Comments? E-mail me at michael.levans@reedbusiness.com