It may surprise many people, and perhaps the readers of Practical Neurology, that neither I nor the Editorial Board have any stake in the ownership of the journal. It is owned by the publishers, as is standard practice in the case of non-Society owned journals. Although the journal was my idea, it was Blackwell Publishing who—after several years of thought with prodding from me—eventually took the risk of setting it up, supporting it, and marketing it, even though the magazine’s appearance (but not content) was rather foreign to them. And I would like to sincerely thank Blackwell for all that they have done over the last four years, particularly Stuart Taylor, their neurology publisher, who looked after us throughout.

I had known for some time that Blackwell were having difficulty making the journal work financially and that we faced closure if things didn’t improve (particularly the level of subscriptions). Last summer they decided to try to find a buyer for the journal in preference to closing something which they felt should have a future—but in …