A new year, a new look for PB, a new website and a new blog - PB Week.

The background to the change is simple – general insurance broking is changing fast, and managing a brokerage is becoming more challenging by the minute, from growing your business, keeping your staff, paying the rent and protecting  your reputation. To reflect this, PB, the only insurance broker magazine dedicated to managers, is changing too. We have smartened ourselves up in order to become more reader friendly, and aim to introduce highly targeted management-based editorial to help you run your brokerages.

So what are the new sections? In terms of news, our aim is to focus on the analysis of changes in the industry, looking at the strategic implications and trends that are relevant to broker managers. In addition we will provide in-depth focuses on key areas of managing your business. For example, in February we concentrate on managing finance and look at issues such as taxation, debt, shares and how they all relate to your businesses.

We have also taken the step of interviewing the forgotten element of the insurance press – the customers! What do they look for in a broker and their insurer, how are the relationships? We will also provide in-depth statistics on the industry’s top insurers, helping to make sure you are dealing with the right partners. Meanwhile, our PB On Air offering will see industry figures appear on television and radio via our website. Last but not least this blog – PB Week – will provide you with news from the latest parties, events and industry big hitters.

Of course, we have not thrown out the baby with the bathwater: many of our regular columns such as Broking Success and the legal and management clinic columns will remain, making PB a comprehensive and indispensable monthly resource.

I am proud of the new look and content; if you would like to comment on this blog or anything that you have read or seen in the magazine or on the website then please contact me at andrew.tjaardstra@incisivemedia.com. I look forward to hearing from you.