The great news: 1105 Media will take over publishing VSM. And the even better news: The new ownership will enable us to try some new things, as well as update and freshen the magazine. Now that VSM—or VSM 2.0 as I like to call it—has become part of the extended Redmond Media Group (RMG) family of magazines, we will be able to bring you a strong selection of product announcements and developer interviews relevant to creating applications in Visual Studio. Other RMG titles include Redmond Magazine (RM), Redmond Channel Partner, Redmond Developer News, and Application Development Trends.

We are excited about what the future holds for VSM under 1105 Media's stewardship. In the next few months, you will see new, highly targeted columns, and some new layout elements intended to make the magazine easier to navigate. You will also be able to visit an augmented VSM Web site and read special, Web-only content that expands the focus of the magazine. We also intend to expand reader participation, with a renewed emphasis on reader-submitted tips and content.

Of course, VSM will continue to provide independent, how to, practical articles that teach you how to create applications with Visual Studio better, faster, and more easily. This is our bread and butter, what the magazine has always been about, and it is what the magazine will continue to be about.

VSM in all its iterations has played a pivotal role in building the Microsoft development community. Once upon a time, this magazine and its associated conference, VSLive!—née Visual Basic Interactive Technical Summit (VBITS)—represented the beginning and end of magazines and conferences devoted exclusively to Visual Basic programming. Many competitors have entered this hallowed space since the launch of VSM, and many have left, but VSM remains. VSM has been here to guide developers through the launch of Visual Basic and all its significant updates, including Visual Basic 3, the switch to 32-bit programming in Visual Basic 4, and more recently, the transition to .NET with our expanded focus on the entire Visual Studio suite. We know first-hand the challenges you face as a developer and appreciate how today's challenges differ from the past, because we have been here all along.

VSM has benefited tremendously from the contributions of its authors; a dedicated, hardworking staff; and, of course, you, the readers. It is a special privilege to serve the Visual Studio community with this magazine, and I want to reiterate our continued commitment both to the community and to providing you with the best how-to technical articles and tips that you can find anywhere.

We at VSM are proud of the legacy begun under the BasicPro moniker and carried on with Visual Basic Programmer's Magazine and Visual Studio Magazine. It has been fun, exciting, and challenging to help deliver on founder Jim Fawcette's introductory promise, spelled out in BasicPro's inaugural February/March 1991 issue:

"Our promise to our readers is simple. BASICPro will be the premier source of truly useful, hands-on information on all facets of the BASIC language that will make you a more productive programmer. You'll learn how to write faster code more efficiently and we'll show you dozens of new tools and utilities that will help you get your job done better today."

We intend to expand on this magazine's legacy and will always strive to make the magazine serve its readers better. In the process of fulfilling this promise, VSM (and its RMG sister magazines) will continue to provide an important and independent voice for you, the Microsoft developer, a voice that with your help will continue to shape the developer community for generations to come.

Meet your new magazine, same as your old magazine—only better.

(This blog posting is excerpted from the VSM February 2007 Editor's Note.)

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