Introducing Modern Retail, Digiday Media’s newest vertical

Any industry in transition needs honest and authoritative coverage that consistently drills past marketing speak and C-suite spins to uncover what’s really happening behind the scenes. That’s been Digiday’s approach to the media and marketing industries, and Glossy’s approach to reporting on fashion and beauty. Now, we’re taking on the retail industry with Modern Retail, which will dedicate daily coverage to news, and most importantly, add context and analysis to the most pressing topics and trends coursing through consumerism.

We’ll be writing on the industry’s nuances, through the digital lens, from Amazon’s strategic shifts and their implications, to stores’ recasting as experience meccas and fulfillment centers. We’ll follow the evolving strategies of DTC brands as they grow up, as well as the new internal makeups of traditional retailers like Walmart and Target as they retool operations to function more like Amazon. And always, amid the hype of a new brand reaching a weighty valuation, or the fallout of another round of store closures, we’ll seek out the underbelly of the most-talked about stories to get at the realistic implications, as retail’s newest players try to mature and its most traditional pillars struggle to stay upright.

Our ultimate goal: To build a community of people obsessed with the next generation of retail, tackling it from multiple angles and bringing new observations to the conversation. So, along with our editorial coverage, Modern Retail will host industry events, including one-day forums and three-day summits, to bring together like-minded retail leaders dealing with the same daily challenges.

Modern Retail will launch with myself and reporter Anna Hensel, and will feature regular contributions from Digiday and Glossy reporters to provide the most comprehensive perspective on what people working in and alongside retail need to know to do their jobs and stay on the cutting edge of the industry’s ongoing overhaul. A special thanks to Claudia Chow of Studio Chow, who designed the site, Peter Surrena and Aaron Gottlieb, who led product development, and Triad, our launch sponsor.

It’s our viewpoint that retail is not dead or dying — just getting smarter. We plan to tell stories that depict that transition with differentiated analysis you won’t find elsewhere. The best way to follow along is to sign up for our daily newsletter. Please send feedback, questions and commentary to hilary@modernretail.co. We’d love to hear from you.