Robert and Donna Ward (the R and D of R&D Publications) worked hard for many years building up their company. Aside from the C Users Group, they developed a stable of magazines, of which CUJ is the flagship. I took over editing CUJ five plus years ago in large measure because Robert was in semi-permanent overload. They can both now kick back rather more and get caught up on some much needed rest. (They might even, as their kids keep urging, "get a life.") I congratulate them.

I walked much the same path earlier in my career. After ten years of running my own software company, I began to believe I knew how to do the job. But much of the fun had gone out of it by then, for me at least. So I sold out and took up the mad, gay life of the independent writer. It was painful to part company with a staff most of whom I still count as friends. But it was a necessary step in preserving my personal health and sanity.

Miller Freeman Inc. is the proud new owner of R&D Publications. They're the same folks who publish Dr. Dobb's Journal, Embedded Systems Programming, and Software Development, to name just a few of their vast array of magazines. I've written nearly 200 articles for Miller Freeman publications, and continue to do so even as I edit CUJ. I'm confident that Miller Freeman will continue to support the editorial direction, and quality standards, we've worked hard to maintain here over the years. For their excellent taste in acquisitions, I congratulate them too.

Visible changes will doubtless appear, from time to time, as the new order settles in. Meanwhile, our short-term goal is to make the transition as smoothly as possible. We want to keep the most apparent change to be the names at the bottom of the masthead.

P.J. Plauger