• Young Design Engineer of the Year
• Design Engineer of the Year
• Consultancy of the Year
• Small Company of the Year
• Green Mechanical Design of the Year
• Green Electronic Design of the Year
• New Mechanical Product of the Year
• New Electronic Product of the Year
• Judges Special Award (chosen from all of the shortlisted entries)
• British Engineering Excellence Grand Prix

The deadline for submission is 31st July 2009, will full details on the website. For help creating your submission contact Napier.

Onwards and upwards

There has been much speculation and some degree of mischief-making surrounding New Electronics and the story behind Findlay Publications (FPL) fate. So, to put the record straight, this is what happened just two days before Christmas.

Like many companies, FPL operated a final salary pension scheme. But the recent decline in global stock markets and growing pension fund servicing costs, saw the pension fund develop a rapidly deepening, multi-million pound ‘black hole’ deficit.

Despite the company’s strong trading performance, its bank was not prepared to lend money simply to support the troubled final salary scheme and as a result, the bank withdrew its overdraft facility with no warning.

Instead of the relaxing Christmas break they were planning, four members of FPL’s senior management team spent the holiday putting together a bid for a substantial part of FPL’s assets. That bid was successful and a new company – Findlay Media – emerged as the new owners of New Electronics.

Findlay Media executive director Ed Tranter said: “Despite a turbulent Christmas period, we entered 2009 in a better position than many. Findlay Media has no bank debts, no financial salary scheme burden, available investment funds and exciting plans for product development across the group, not just in the electronics sector.”

The re-launch of www.newelectronics.co.uk is just the start of the product development roll out. Not only has there been a change of design, the site is now updated throughout the day providing its readers with more news and technology features than before. The site has also been enhanced with the a number of new sections and innovations, including interviews, NETV (video channel), white papers, new product announcements, opinion polls, blogs and the ability for the readers to comment on all stories. New Electronics has also launched an Embedded channel, providing focused coverage of this important industry sector. Further vertical channels are in development and will be launched in the next few months.

Importantly, New Electronics has the same editorial team, the same high editorial and circulation standards and the same fortnightly publishing schedule.

In a recent New Electronics’ reader survey, 61% of readers have made purchasing decisions based on what they have seen in the magazine, 23% of New Electronics readers have a budget of more than £500,000 and 72% of the New Electronics audience reads every issue. With of delivery mechanisms ranging from print advertising and website presence to direct mail and focused marketing campaigns – New Electronics remains one of the essential routes to market for companies looking to reach electronics design engineers. Whatever else you may have heard, those are the facts.

With another UK-based electronics editor leaving the electronics sector, there is a risk of a real shortage of editorial talent. I hope that publishers will be able to attract a new generation of editors to the industry, ensuring UK continues to publish titles that deliver high-quality, independent editorial.