The publisher of XML-Journal, SYS-CON Media, is always looking to widen and deepen its coverage of the i-technologies that are covered by its world-beating stable of publications. Given SYS-CON's other publications, which include Java Developer's Journal (the leading Java development publication), Web Services Journal, Wireless Business & Technology, ColdFusion Developer's Journal, BEA WebLogic Developer's Journal, WebSphere Developer's Journal, and PowerBuilder Developer's Journal, XML has always been covered extensively as a topic even before one turns to XML-J, begging the question of whether or not a standalone XML publication is justifiable.

John Evdemon, my coeditor-in-chief, and I were a united voice for keeping the standalone XML publication. However, a focus on developing XML applications arguably has considerable overlap now with the existing base of publications. That said, there is a need in the market for information pertaining to the design, best practices, and business benefit of using XML to solve particular types of problems. Hence there should be a publication that is focused on delivering exactly this type of information.

This states the purpose for a standalone XML publication, but I thought it important to briefly define the role of XML-Journal as it relates to the other SYS-CON publications. It's also important to note that XML-J is one of the few publications from SYS-CON that doesn't contain the word Developer in the title. At the time of its creation, the title was carefully selected to identify the much larger role that XML plays in the information industry. However, as is the course of many technologies, most of our initial readers and authors of articles for the magazine were the technologists that were developing and advancing the state of the technology.

Now, in mid-2002, XML has a much broader audience than developers alone. Indeed, the CEO, CIO, CTO, CFO, vice president, director, and line-of-business manager all understand to some degree that XML will play a role in how their systems interact with other systems and with the outside world. To this end, this community is now reaching out to better understand the impact that XML will have on their companies. They want to know about the successes and failures of those that have been implementing it. They want to know about the skills required to use XML in their organization, and they want to know which standards they should watch and, perhaps, participate in developing.

XML-Journal is perfectly positioned to adapt to these new circumstances. But what does that mean about the content of this publication relative to other SYS-CON publications - for example, Web Services Journal?

WSJ is an excellent example to start with to discuss XML-Journal's placement in the spectrum of SYS-CON Media's i-technology publications. Clearly, Web services has an XML component to it, but so do Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and portals. This doesn't mean that WSJ should supersede a publication devoted to the advancement and study of the XML industry.

Web services is a methodology for the development of loosely coupled, late-bound applications using standard Internet technologies. The focus of Web Services Journal is on the study and advancement of this methodology. Sure, there will be technical articles in both publications that look at building SOAP and WSDL, but the overall content of the two publications is very well defined.

Readers of SYS-CON's excellent developer journals should expect to find a robust treatment of XML in those publications as well. Java Developer's Journal is an excellent resource for articles about processing XML in Java using standards like JAXP, JAXR, and JAXB. ColdFusion Developer's Journal is a great resource for ColdFusion developers to find out how to incorporate XML into their server-side applications.

However, if you're looking for a publication that will focus on a programming language- and vendor-independent treatment of XML (the tenets of XML), you'll be certain to find that only in XML-Journal.

With XML popping up in the far reaches of computing, it's understandable that confusion will be widespread. Hopefully, this editorial better defines XML-J's purpose and relationship to the other SYS-CON publications. We hope you will enjoy the new format and find it even more interesting and useful than before.