Today brings to an end my first week at Retail Week as Editor-in-chief.

Today brings to an end my first week at Retail Week as Editor-in-chief. In many ways, it feels like it has served as a fascinating snapshot of all that excites, challenges, inspires and threatens the industry.

Tesco kindly set the ball rolling by timing the announcement of 20,000 new jobs with my first day, but the pace since has relented little - whether it’s been news of administrations, speculation surrounding store closures, annual results or strategic acquisitions and appointments.

By far my favourite story this week, however, was the annual jamboree that surrounded the announcement of the John Lewis Partnership bonus. As George MacDonald points out in his leader today, it is a fitting reminder, set against these challenging times, of the sizeable role retail plays for the better in so many lives.

Finally, it would be remiss of me not to mention the warmth of welcome I have received from everyone in the Retail Week team and from those within the industry whom I’ve already had the pleasure of speaking to.

Next week is The Cloud Retail Week Conference, which offers an unrivalled opportunity to immerse myself in the issues and characters driving this industry forward. As such, personally, it could not have been timed better and I look forward to being able to meet as many of you there as possible.

And, whilst there is nothing quite like the Conference and the Oracle Retail Week Awards as a chance to meet many of our readers so quickly, I am determined to build upon Retail Week’s unrivalled relationship with the industry. Multi-channel is a powerful trend in retail, but the parallels with publishing should not be lost as we look to serve our readership with outstanding content across multiple platforms.

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