some days i love my job

It's not uncommon for a trade journalist who has worked in the newspaper industry (most of them have) to miss the daily grind, chasing breaking news and the pressure of a looming deadline. It's what keeps good journalists thriving. Sometimes trade journalism simply just doesn't offer the same excitement, camaraderie and reward.

Today was one of those days where--at the end of the day--I'm able to stop, take a deep breath, and remember why I signed up for this gig. It was a pretty important day for the hotel team at Questex: we launched a daily e-newsletter with a circulation of more than 50,000 readers that will feature exclusive hotel news and insight. The newsletter launch--a culmination of months of hard work from a dedicated team of editors, designers and web gurus--will help feature our stories and drive traffic to our recently redesigned website.

As luck would have it, on the day the hotel team has been so anxiously awaiting, one of the oldest, biggest and most recognizable hotel brands (Hilton) up and announced they were changing their name, introducing a new logo and replacing one of the most controversial hotel designers in the industry. All by 9 a.m.

It threw a wrench into our game plan. With most of our staff attending The Lodging Conference, one of the biggest hotel industry conference of the year, it was up to the remaining few to chase down the story, score a last-minute interview with Hilton's global CEO Chris Nassetta, design a graphic to lead our website and newsletter, write the story, build the newsletter and push it out to the public. All while we wrote, edited and designed the cover of the next issue of Hotel & Motel Management magazine, due to the printer Friday. Just like old times!

Here's a sneak peek at how things turned out:

The first day of The Daily--our newsletter that will feature exclusive news and opinions from Hotel & Motel Management staff as well as headlines from around the industry--was jam packed with news. Hilton's refresh, a somewhat controversial story on rate discounting, a terror threat issued to hotels, a death and arrest in an iconic NYC hotel and a blog from The Lodging Conference round out Day 1. Some of the fonts and links will undoubtedly be tweaked moving forward, but all in all it came together pretty well. If you're interested in hotel news and want to sign up for The Daily, click here.




Hilton's name change--from Hilton Hotels and Resorts to Hilton Worldwide--as well as their new logo, leads the day's headlines on our newly redesigned website. I learned of the news around 9 a.m. and was chatting with Hilton's CEO by 10:15. Pretty interesting story, including an update on the lawsuit Starwood filed against Hilton over their alleged theft of trade secrets. Check out the design of the new site here and let me know in the comments section what you think.

Tomorrow will undoubtedly be back to writing photo captions, trimming stories to fit on pages and discussing minibar options. But The Daily will keep us on our toes and, at least for today, remind me that journalism isn't dead, just evolving.