Every year about this time, while the inbox floods with holiday greetings and most of those around us begin to frolic, our team is focused on completing production of this issue right around the winter solstice. Which makes sense: The shortest day of the year serves as an annual reminder that we’re running out of time.
But as our friend and former art director Scott Larsen likes to say every year on the first day after that darkest 24 hours of the year, “Hey, I can already feel the days getting longer!”
In that spirit — and in the spirit of our “Lighting the Way” cover design — let’s shed some light on what’s ahead for Site Selection in 2026.
Even as I write this our research squad led by Karen Medernach is poring over year-end corporate facility project numbers in our proprietary Conway Projects Database. Around the time you read this we’ll be double-checking and verifying those thousands of investments in order to determine one of our most highly anticipated rankings of any year: the Governor’s Cups for the states with the most projects and most projects per capita that will be awarded in our March 2026 issue. It’s always a perfect follow-up to the meticulously documented State of the States report you’ll find in this issue, featuring legislative updates, demographic and economic statistics, rankings and other economic development data relevant to operating a business in every U.S. state.
Those state data pages feature a wealth of new initiatives, from child care and housing to new incentives and workforce training centers. In the same vein, Site Selection’s 2026 editorial plan is dotted with fresh features, including the revamped Site Selection Workforce Development Rankings and second annual North American Tech Hubs Index in this issue; exclusive insights on law firm office location trends in March; and a spotlight on architecture, engineering and construction firms in May.
We’ll still be covering the usual suspects when it comes to states, regions, countries and industry sectors, including three scheduled installments on data centers. You’ll also encounter exclusive reports, news and data analysis — often with the collaboration of valued partners — on topics from water resources to business process outsourcing, rural economic development to nuclear energy. And be ready to discover things you didn’t know about places ranging from Brazil and Mexico to Western Europe (in this issue), Australia and India — highlighted as the place to be in this issue’s Asia contribution from Tractus Co-founder John Evans.
After 72 years, Site Selection knows where to find things out, which data are worth examining and how to provide our global corporate readers business intelligence that matters to your daily work. Even on the darkest days of winter, as the old Motel 6 tagline by Tom Bodett goes, you know we’ll leave the light on for you.
