Our team is taking some lessons to heart through the disruption, challenges and opportunities the past 18 months have presented to each of us. And we see a lot of opportunity to improve what we do and how we do it going forward, just as we’ve reported in these pages of how so many teams in distribution have pivoted to increase their value proposition to their customers. That’s why you’ll see some changes in October to your MDM Premium subscription and into 2022 as we try to make our analysis and coverage of wholesale distribution channels better and easier to access. 

I’m excited to expand our capabilities to help you stay on top of the fast-changing markets and competitive landscape. First, we’re adding to our seasoned team of analysts and editors to deepen our industry coverage as we have continued to grow our team over the past year. And we’re changing how we deliver our content and how you’ll receive MDM Premium going forward. This issue of MDM is the last print edition, and the last of our twice-monthly issue format. Instead, we’ll be providing you with real-time Premium content twice a week – Tuesdays and Thursdays – as well as Premium Monthly, a PDF-format collection of the previous four weeks of analysis.  

I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard over the past 29 years that I have been the steward of MDM how our subscribers enjoy filing the latest issue of MDM Premium in their briefcase to peruse on the airplane, where there is time to read and digest the content. You can still do this with our new printer-friendly Premium Monthly that we’ll email you to download as a PDF file! 

But we’re also making MDM Premium more mobile-friendly – phone and tablet – as we undergo our own digital transformation and invest in deeper industry coverage and easier-to-read content delivery. 

New content

In addition, Premium members will receive MDM’s new series of Market Insight Reports, our team’s ongoing research on the issues affecting the wholesale distribution industry. These reports include benchmarks empowering executives to measure company performance, identify growth opportunities, understand the industry landscape and remain competitive.  

For example, each quarter you’ll receive what we’re calling the MDM MarketPulse, an updated version of our quarterly report on MDM’s exclusive survey of more than 500 wholesale distribution industry executives representing more than $100 billion in revenues that we’ve produced in partnership with Baird for 12-plus years. Another example is a quarterly report focused on our ongoing distribution industry M&A coverage and analysis. Stay tuned for more details on these shortly as well as other Market Insight Reports in the works for Premium members. 

What’s not changing is our commitment to provide the deepest resource available for market intelligence, data, research and insights on the wholesale distribution industry. For more than 50 years, Modern Distribution Management has been a go-to resource that has supported thousands of wholesale distribution executives stay informed, connected and learn from the experiences – best practices and failures – across all sectors of the distribution industry globally.