Summer cleanup.

As everyone knows--particularly in the snowier, messier areas of the country (like Cleveland)--summer is when you really start getting serious about cleaning things up. After winter has buried you several times, most likely spring has deluged you with days and weeks of wind and rain. Those balmy summer days at last give you time to roll up your sleeves and start scouring away the grime. It isn't much fun (a large garage and a small sailboat are my two particular "curses" along these lines), but the results can be satisfying.

Much more fun and satisfying is to "clean up" the look and presentation of a publication. Although readers do become familiar and comfortable with the appearance of a particular magazine they see every month, there never was a magazine design that couldn't be freshened and improved in some way. Nursing Homes/Long Term Care Management is no exception. We've been reasonably happy with our look and content in recent years, and have made a few changes, but now is the time for more change. You'll note some of this in the current and near-future issues of this magazine.

For one thing, we're going for a more colorful, engaging appearance, which you will see elements of in the design and layout of articles. You may not be able (or want) to specify the changes we've made, but the overall impact should make the magazine feel more pleasant to hold and spend time with.

Then, come August, you will note that we've done away with a fairly long-running department called "NH News Notes." It's note that we're not interested in the news or don't want you to know about it. It's that, in this day and age, a monthly publication that aspires to purvey "news" is operating by 20th century rules, i.e., it's obsolete. With today's all-pervasive broadcast media and the Internet, news is hours (and sometimes only minutes or seconds) old. It really is new. Our readers can still find long-term care news--the real news--on www.nursinghomesmagazine.com. This will reserve still more space for us to do what we try to do best: present practical, entertaining, easy-to-read articles on the major topics of the day.

Another new development, in my mind as important as any, is the introduction of humor in the magazine on at least a semi-regular basis. Gary Tetz, who many of our readers might remember as the editor of the late and lamented SNALF.com, has agreed to contribute his skewed points of view in a department called "Funny You Should Ask." Never was a good laugh more timely or welcome than it is for today's long-term care providers. Nor are there many writers in any field of Gary's caliber, as you can see for yourself in this very issue, p. 72.

You will likely see other departments come, go, expand, or shrink in coming months, as we pilot Nursing Homes into the second half of the century's first decade. These years bid to become the most significant era in our magazine's 54-year history, as major national attention swings toward the onrushing baby boom and the realities of the long-term care system that awaits it. It will be a time of fast-breaking change, requiring nimbleness and constantly refreshed perception to track and interpret it.

Knowing this, we plan to keep giving you a reason to pick up this magazine, open it up, and find enlightenment, inspiration, and relief, month after month.

BY RICHARD L. PECK, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

To send your comments on this editorial to the author and editors, e-mail [e-mail].