On Topic: Why we changed

If you want to know what happened, read the news. If you want to know what's going to happen, read the business news.

Here's one example: The regular news will tell you the price at your friendly neighborhood gas station has gone up, and by how much.

But readers of the business pages knew that Iran's act of cutting off oil supplies to French and British companies a few months back would affect the price per barrel on the prickly world market, and how anxious suppliers in this country in turn might want to hoard what they had on hand - by inching up the amount you have to pay to top off your tank.

They could see it coming.

So when we decided after a year and a quarter to shift the print version of Business 380 from a tabloid magazine to a broadsheet format and incorporate that Business 380 brand throughout the week (as well as for our website, Twitter and Facebook), we made it a point to keep that advantage.

After all, sometimes tabloids, no matter how much foresight they offer, can get lost among Sunday's healthy forest of advertising circulars.

With this format, we also intend to pay heed to what focus groups and a reader panel of Corridor decision-makers have had to say:

They told us, pretty clearly, they aren't interested in being “educated,” especially on a Sunday. But they do have a hankering to learn.

They want to be engaged.

They want to know more about key leaders in the region - not only the personal side, but also how they make decisions, how they overcome challenges. Our readers hope to find characteristics and thought processes they can emulate in their own lives.

And they want to hear the different sides - all of them - on big business developments. From Penford's expansion plans to the recent merger of Cedar Rapids's economic-development agencies.

What were those leaders thinking? How did they plot a course? What have they learned in hindsight?

Our reader panelists also indicated they appreciate continued guidance from our columnists on social media (Nick Westergaard) and tech (Mike McKay). For many of us, that's still a broad sweep of uncharted territory.

Of course, this new format also means our Business 380 columns - including this sometimes non-traditional business one you're reading - will have less space. A former publisher back in Michigan, while waxing eloquent on the joys of reporting, once told me, “It's harder to write short than it is to write long.”

Well, I guess we're about to find out.