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As business owners, you know how it feels to one day open the doors of your business for the very first time, and then walk in one day and realize 10 years have passed. That is exactly how we feel here at PMQ coming in to 2007 as we celebrate our 10th anniversary. It’s easy to remember putting out that first 40-page issue because it seems like yesterday, but it is hard to fathom how far PMQ and the pizza industry have come and what it is today. For the entire year, PMQ is going to celebrate new beginnings and changes. The first part of this change, as you may have noticed, is the name of this magazine.
PMQ: Then
When we first launched the magazine back in 1997 we chose a name that represented exactly what we were…Pizza…Marketing…and we were Quarterly. The magazine was sold, written and created in the living room of Steve and Linda Green’s house and was mailed to 30,000 pizzeria owners and business people. Pizza Marketing Quarterly’s name was changed to PMQ Magazine and in September 2003 we went from four issues a year (quarterly) to six issues a year. Just prior to that, in 2002, PMQ’s first international issue was launched as PMQ Australia/New Zealand with a circulation of 8,000. Our world circulation had moved to 43,000 and, to the pleasure of Steve and Linda, the PMQ headquarters had also moved out of their living room and into our first office complex. PMQ’s growth was far from over and in fact, was really just beginning.
As a result of the entire PMQ organization being banned from all of our competing magazine’s trade shows, in 2004, PMQ decided to launch PMQ’s New York Pizza Show. In 2005 PMQ launched PMQ Canada and our world circulation grew to over 50,000. In addition to our magazine’s growth and the trade show, PMQ launched the U.S. Pizza Team, added another pizza show in Orlando, launched PMQ China online, built the most comprehensive pizza-related business site on the entire Internet, lead the industry with “you-saw-it-here-firsts” like live online chat sessions, Pizza TV, Pizza Radio, nationwide independent pizza promotions with the History Channel and so much more. The industry has changed and so has PMQ.
PMQ: Now
With all of these changes, we are no longer just Pizza Marketing Quarterly. We are PMQ’s Pizza Shows, PMQ’s U.S. Pizza Team, PMQ’s Pizza Radio and, as you may have noticed on the front cover, now PMQ’s Pizza Magazine. Our industry is more than marketing; it’s operations, menus, international business and much, much more. Our name has changed, the industry has changed, and yes, PMQ has changed. That’s not to say you won’t still be getting the editorial focus you have come to expect, but the range will widen and you will now get more of what you have come to expect from PMQ as an industry leader.
Along with a new name, and as you may notice by new look and layout of the magazine, we are working to improve PMQ as your industry’s business leader. In addition to our name and look changing, so is our website. As of October of 2006, there were over 100 million web sites on the Internet. According to Alexa.com, PMQ.com is the #1 restaurant business-to-business (B2B) web site out there. PMQ.com has consistently remained in the top 50,000 web sites out of 100 million! Our competitors’ web sites don’t even come close and many of our readers comment that the ease of navigation, its interactive sections and abundance of content are the reasons why. Well, now PMQ.com will be even easier to navigate, looks better and has new features. Drop by www.PMQ.com (you can also get there by going to www.pmqpizzamagazine.com) and check out the new site.
Coming up in PMQ’s Pizza Magazine
When the staff sat down to discuss how we would celebrate our 10th anniversary, we decided to look through our past issues to get a theme. We didn’t have to look far. As we discussed some of the past cover stories, we began to talk about how most of these guys have continued their success and many are doing ever better than they were at the time of their cover story. As a result, we decided to go back and revisit some of our favorites in each issue to get a “then and now” update. What better first story to revisit than the one from our very first issue on Rolf Wilkin and Eureka Pizza. You can read his PMQ Then and Now article on page___. Be watching in the next year for updates on Domino’s of San Diego (Article: Best of the Best Go Toe to Toe from Fall 2000), Randy’s Wooster Street (Article: Is This the Coolest Pizzeria or What? from Spring 2001), Potomac Pizza (Article: Potomac Pizza from July/August 2004), Goodfella’s (Article: Building a Big Image in New York from Spring 2003) and many others. Also look for new articles on delivery, appetizers, packaging, recipes, sauces and much, much more.
PMQ’s Pizza Magazine Golden Advertisers
We would first like to thank everyone who has supported PMQ’s magazines, trade shows, pizza teams and other events we have produced. These companies are the very reason we are able to bring you this magazine and we thank our new clients who believed in us and those old and long-term friends who have stuck with us through the years. We want to make special notice of five of them who have been with PMQ for every issue since our initial launch. Those advertisers are Burke, Fidelity, Krisp-It, Lillsun and Moving Targets. Thank you for your 10 years of continued support of PMQ.
To Our Loyal Readers
With a current world circulation of 55,000 pizzeria owners and industry leaders, PMQ is proud of our family-grown beginnings. Just like PMQ, the majority of our readers started out with humble beginnings. While not starting out in your living rooms, many of you did start your life in the pizza industry in your very own home kitchens. We want to give a special thanks to all of those who look to PMQ for answers, who buy from our advertisers, who contribute to the interactive community of peers on PMQ.com, who write us letters and come up just to say hello at our trade shows. We want you to know that PMQ’s Pizza Magazine is your magazine…if there is a story you want told, a topic you want covered, a question you need answered or a product you need help finding, we are just a phone call, email or mouse click away. Thanks for 10 years of support.