A New Beginning

Our commitment is to serve you better than ever.

Since this is the first time my name and face have appeared on this page, an introduction is in order. I'm new to this space, but not to Government Executive. In the fall of 1989, I started with the magazine, clipping news articles for the staff writers whose work I so admired and writing short news items. Eventually, I became one of those writers myself, covering everything from the Human Genome Project to the National Performance Review. Then I moved into the editing ranks, helping to craft and shape our coverage.

For the past 11 years, I've focused much of my attention on Government Executive's online operations, trying to figure out how to build on the print brand we have developed over several decades to provide you with more frequently updated information and new opportunities for interaction. And I will continue to devote much of my attention to that never-ending task.

As I step into this job, I'm very aware that there are some large shoes to fill. My predecessor, Timothy B. Clark, was at the helm of Government Executive for 20 years. On a personal level, I have him to thank for taking a chance on a young man with more desire to be a journalist than actual experience - and then for holding my feet to the fire to produce work deserving of the audience we are privileged to serve. The good news is that Tim is not going anywhere. His work will continue to appear in these pages, and he'll be the public face of the magazine at our growing number of conferences and events-both in person and in the virtual world. The other good news is that Tim has assembled an extremely talented staff of reporters, editors and designers who are committed to the highest standards of quality-not only in the print magazine, but through our Web site, GovernmentExecutive.com, our exciting new online venture, NextGov.com (focusing on how technology is shaping the government of the future) and through our events.

But we need your help. First, we hope you'll be participants in the process of sharing information about what's going on in the vast federal enterprise. One simple way is to go on our Web site and respond to what we've published. Every magazine article and news story that appears on our site has a space for comments, giving you the opportunity to fill in gaps and add insight.

Second, we want your feedback. You can always reach me at tshoop@govexec.com, and all of our other staff e-mail addresses are printed in every issue of the magazine. Let us know how we can serve you better-what this magazine should be, how our other offerings can be improved and what we should be doing that we're not. Government Executive has been at this business for almost 40 years, but we feel like we're just getting started.