Happy 2016—and welcome to this first issue in Oil and Gas Investor’s 35th Anniversary year.

Anniversaries are joyous occasions, but they have a serious side, too. They offer an occasion to reflect and give thanks; to renew commitments; and to celebrate.

About a year ago, the staff of Investor began a series of conversations, putting its editorial, design and business heads together to reflect on what our readers need today.

If we were starting a magazine in 2016, what would it look like? What content would be considered indispensable to our readers? What issues, opportunities and trends deserve additional attention? What topics have faded in importance and might be scuttled, or given a back seat to others? How are digital and social media design innovations affecting what readers expect when they open a print publication today?

The challenge in any long-term relationship is preserving and nurturing the original spark. Our readers are among the most loyal and committed of any publication, in any industry. We’re truly thankful for that—but complacency isn’t an option.

We’ve connected with our audience at conferences and other events, in focus groups and through readers’ surveys. We’ve learned that there is much in Investor that they value, and don’t want changed. So we’ve made judicious choices, to preserve what works while tweaking areas where readers thirst for more.

In this issue, you’ll find content and design enhancements to ensure we’re meeting your information needs. Here’s what to look for.

M&A&D events, news and analysis continue to be of vital importance to our readers, whether those readers are E&P executives, capital providers or investors. Hart Energy’s A&D Strategies & Opportunities Conference held in the fall has become the networking and information gathering for deal makers. A&D editor Darren Barbee has been our go-to expert in this arena, contributing in-depth features and columns on the world of deals.

Now we’ve expanded that coverage. Beginning with this issue, Darren’s column has a permanent home on the A&D Trends page (see page 19). He and his team spend their days fully plugged into the world of deals—calling players to decode motivation and risk-reward metrics, delivering breaking news, and tracking the transaction markets for our websites.

In a vibrant new section, A&D Watch, which you’ll find following our features section, Darren and team have curated a lively and comprehensive assemblage of deal news (formerly housed in our Company Briefs section), thought-provoking commentary, valuation metrics, regional deal updates, people news, marketplace chatter and an A&D scorecard.

We’ve also dusted off our ever-popular Exploration Highlights section. Several years ago, Hart Energy acquired mapping expert Rextag, and the folks at Rextag have redesigned our maps to reflect today’s drilling activity and plays, with the addition of quick-look charts of rig activity for each region.

Our Legends page has been a compelling read for nearly a decade. Former editor-in-chief Leslie Haines, now executive editor-at-large, never failed to reward readers with unforgettable stories and priceless wisdom from these individuals, whose legacies shaped the oil and gas industry. Most of them never retired. For now, however, we’re taking a breather from Legends, with a plan to return to it as another generation of leaders comes of age.

While it doesn’t require changes to the magazine’s format, we’ve also held brainstorming sessions to ensure our feature line-up this year is a must-read. Look for in-depth stories on the play economics Investor is known for; the state of the industry as it faces one of its toughest tests in this downturn; private and public company restructuring strategies; private capital profiles and backgrounders; start-up and investing strategies to catch the inevitable upturn in prices; macro insights; drilling and completion innovations; and more.

Much like the extra value we can bring to our readers courtesy of Rextag’s mapping and graphics expertise, we’re going to work ever more closely with Stratas Advisors, Hart Energy’s consulting arm, to present its insights into the North American upstream, midstream and downstream industries—not just in the monthly column Stratas experts already contribute (see page 23), but throughout the magazine.

Lastly, all year we’ll be celebrating our 35th Anniversary—in a special August issue, in unique print content as well as videos and interactive presentations on our websites, and at our conferences.

Happy New Year!

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