20 Years And Counting. Thank You

Welcome to a party. Digital Transactions is 20 years old, and with this issue we’re celebrating that milestone with a package of stories tracing the development over the years of 10 key topics in digital payments. You’ll find that piece on page 18.

But first, we wanted to pause and take stock of the payments industry and our place in it, if we may be permitted that small indulgence. Twenty years is a slight sliver of time in the scheme of things, after all. The United States is more than 250 years old, and European and Asian nations can count their histories across centuries and millennia. But for magazines, 20 years isn’t a bad indicator of longevity. Many don’t get much past the startup phase, or flame out within a few years. So it’s with a sense of pride—tempered by a due recognition of our need to earn your readership each month—that we mark our 20th anniversary. We also thought it might be timely to review the purpose of this magazine, with a nod to why we started it 20 years ago.

Here’s what we said in our first issue, which mailed in January 2004 and carried a January/February date (we were a bimonthly then): “[B]ankers, retailers, and independent sales organizations (ISOs) confront a market in ferment, one that’s giving rise to trends requiring a new arsenal of competitive strategies…But opportunities abound for those who understand and come to grips with this revolution, not just to make money, but to re-make the way consumers spend money, indeed, the way they interact with business and government.”

Somewhat immodestly, perhaps, we said our purpose was to “interpret these trends and spell out these strategies” for a comprehensive audience of merchants, bankers, and the processors and acquirers in between.

Through the years since we started, the technologies, strategies, tactics—and even the players—have undergone many changes, but our purpose in bringing you this magazine, along with Digital Transactions News every business day, remains unchanged. Indeed, there’s little point in publishing a business magazine unless the publishers can adhere to a purpose like this year in and year out.

If anything, given the pace of change in tactics and technology, the need for Digital Transactions has only grown over the past 20 years. We hope this magazine has been of some service to you as you launch new products, enter new geographies, map new strategies, and seek to understand the strategies of your competitors.

In that first issue, I invited readers to contact me any time with questions, comments, or story ideas. I repeat that invitation here. I’m at john@digitaltransactions.net.

—John Stewart, Editor john@digitaltransactions.net