To our readers

You have in your hands the first issue of the fourth volume of TowerView. That, by a strange quirk in the intricacies of our counting system, makes the magazine three years old today. So how do you celebrate a magazine's birthday?

I don't know if you remember your third birthday; I certainly have no recollection of mine. I have a feeling that it was a family affair, with more gifts than I probably deserved. And I'm sure that my parents--and I myself, if I thought about it at all--rightly considered it a milestone in my life.

Of course, magazines are a bit different from people. For one, they're born like Athena, springing full-grown from the minds of their creators. They start publishing immediately, with no long infancy of incapacity.

But that's not to say that magazines don't change over time. It's as if they're born adolescent, capable of functioning at birth but always with room for growth as well. And that gave us an idea for the sort of birthday present you give a magazine: In the same spirit that inspired my parents to give me far too many gifts that December day, we decided to give TowerView a new look and feel.

First and foremost, we've started printing every page in full color on glossy paper. We've redesigned our page layouts to create a sharper look for TowerView.

We've focused on making colorful, exciting graphics and spicing up the short, easy-to-read content at the start of the magazine, even adding a few new features like the photo underneath this column and Gothic Rockpile/Gothic Wonderland on page 6. And we've got a new staff. But most importantly, we're trying as hard as ever to write compelling articles on in-depth topics that you want to hear about.

So, that's how we decided to celebrate TowerView's birthday. Will it represent a milestone in the magazine's history? I hope so--but that's up to you to decide.

-- Matt Atwood, editor