First, the bad news: Professional Deck Builder’s October 2017 issue was the last one that you’ll receive in your mailbox. But that’s also the good news, because even though PDB will no longer be published as a standalone magazine, starting in 2018 we’ll be more closely aligned with JLC, the residential building and remodeling industry’s leading information and training platform. What does this mean for you?
Four times next year--in March, May, July, and September--PDB will appear as a special insert within the printed pages of JLC. Here you’ll find PDB’s familiar content, including your favorite columns such as Reader’s Tip, Eye for Design, and Day’s End, as well as our regular feature-length articles. This is in addition to JLC’s outstanding monthly coverage of best construction practices, and if you’re already a PDB subscriber, JLC will start showing up in your actual or virtual mailboxes regularly starting in January. You’ll get full access to everything that both PDB and JLC have to offer, both online and (for most subscribers) in print.
Meanwhile, to help make it easier to access this information, PDB continues to invest in and expand our own digital platform, which will still exist independently of JLC. Say, for example, you’re on the job and need help figuring out how large to make the footings for a deck you’re building. No problem…just use your smartphone to pull up our home page and go to our "Design and Construction" section, where you can find dozens of articles about footings, including Mike Guertin’s "Better Deck Piers," probably the most comprehensive explanation of how to build trouble-free poured concrete deck foundations that you’ll find on the web. No matter where you are or what device you are using, PDB is--and will continue to be--available 24/7.
In fact, everything we’ve ever published in the printed pages of PDB is on our website, which continues to grow in viewership and engagement. In 2017, website page views grew by more than 40% compared with 2016. There's also a lot of content online that we don't have room for in the printed magazine, and we'll continue to add to that next year.
To stay up to date as we continue our digital evolution, bookmark our homepage, which we frequently update, and subscribe to one of our two e-newsletters. If you have questions, comments, or a story idea, I always encourage PDB readers to reach out to us via our Forum pages, in the "Comments" sections that follow all of our articles, on our Facebook page or other social media channels, or simply by emailing us at [email protected] to let us know how we can serve you best.
