RS Components launches new DesignSpark Magazine in collaboration with global publishing house Elektor International Media

New digital publication replaces eTech to deliver increased technical content and project-based articles to global electronics readership

Oxford, UK, 27 February 2013 - RS Components (RS), the trading brand of Electrocomponents plc (LSE:ECM), the world's leading high service distributor of electronics and maintenance products, has announced the launch of its new online publication, DesignSpark Magazine, which has been created to target the specific interests of electronics design engineers, hobbyists, and other readers wishing to keep abreast of the latest products and technologies emerging from the global electronics industry. DesignSpark Magazine will be published in collaboration with Elektor International Media - the global electronics design and publishing house.

DesignSpark Magazine is an evolution of the company's popular eTech Magazine, which was first released as a digital edition in July 2010. The new title is available as a fully digital publication in iPad, iPhone, Android tablet and page-turner formats. The publishing partnership with Elektor will produce not only a fresh-look magazine, but in addition will draw on Elektor's long experience in the electronics publishing field to deliver the highest quality of technical content as a source of inspiration for design engineers worldwide.

DesignSpark Magazine, which derives its name from designspark.com, the RS online community for electronics design engineers, will address three key topic areas:

• Technologies - This will feature the best boards and board-level components for engineers and give readers a snapshot of the newest hot products in the market.
• Software and tools - Keeping readers in touch with the latest resources to save time and money, this area will focus on free tools to support engineers.
• Projects - Inspired by positive feedback on project-style articles in eTech, this expanded section in the new magazine will feature more design-tips articles contributed by Elektor, as well as make-and-build projects from the DesignSpark community. Readers will have access to the information located in this section to develop their own projects.

The new publication is designed to appeal to readers across the globe, with the concurrent launch of eight different language versions: English; Dutch; French; German; Italian; Japanese; Simplified Chinese and Spanish.

Mark Cundle, Head of Technical Marketing at RS, commented, "The RS online DesignSpark community has become a respected and well-used source of information and tools for electronics engineers over the past few years, so it is a natural progression to align the name of our proprietary online publication with the DesignSpark brand. The magazine is an integral part of our efforts to provide customers with a trusted, reliable source of technical information to help reduce design times and costs."

Wisse Hettinga, International Director for Elektor International Media, said, "This exciting collaboration with RS Components will be good news for everyone who is an enthusiast and active in electronics design. It will mean more designs, more inspiration, more 'how to' and 'where to get' information to speed up the design process and create new, interesting electronic products."

-Ends-

About RS Components
RS Components and Allied Electronics are the trading brands of Electrocomponents plc, the world's leading high service distributor of electronics and maintenance products. With operations in 32 countries, we offer more than 550,000 products through the internet, catalogues and at trade counters to over one million customers, shipping around 44,000 parcels a day. Our products, sourced from 2,500 leading suppliers, include electronics, automation and control, test and measurement, electrical and mechanical components.

Electrocomponents is listed on the London Stock Exchange and in the last financial year ended 31 March 2012 had revenues of £1.27bn.

For more information, please visit the website at www.rs-components.com.

About Elektor International Media
With more than 50 years experience in designing and publishing electronic projects Elektor International Media (EIM) is well recognized by a worldwide community of enthusiastic designers. EIM is the publisher of Elektor, Circuit Cellar, Audioxpress and Voice Coil, www.techthefuture.com, books and organizer of events. EIM is publishing in Germany, The United States, France, The Netherlands, Brazil, India, Spain, the UK and Italy.

More information can be found on www.elektor.com.

Editorial Contact
Joanne Youson
Product Marketing PR Manager
RS Components
joanne.youson@rs-components.com
+44 (0)1536 405752

Elektor contact
Wisse Hettinga
w.hettinga@elektor.com
+31 (0)6 34297293

PR Agency Contact
Janice Fenton
Publitek Technology PR
janice.fenton@publitek.com
+44(0)1225 470000

Further information is available via these links:
Twitter: @RSElectronics; @alliedelec; @designsparkRS
RS Components on Linkedin
http://www.linkedin.com/company/rs-components

Electrocomponents plc
www.electrocomponents.com
RS Components
www.rs-components.com
DesignSpark
www.designspark.com
Elektor International Media
www.elektor.com