IndustryWeek
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Digital IndustryWeek: What We’ve Done with Our Time

April 1, 2024
A year after ending the print version of our magazine, IndustryWeek has launched new initiatives, produced great stories and found new ways to serve manufacturing leaders.

When we ended the print edition of IndustryWeek almost exactly a year ago, I set a goal of standing in front of our audience a year later being able to say that we’d used the resources freed by that decision effectively.

Throughout the past 12 months, our staff has developed fresh approaches to serving the manufacturing community with the news and information it needs. Our March 2023 edition was the last paper version of IndustryWeek, ending a run that began in 1882. Today we’re not mourning the past; we’re celebrating what we’ve done since:

That list does not include hundreds of news articles, dozens of in-depth feature stories, our first forays into podcasting or the resumption of commenting capabilities on our stories.  

In manufacturing terms, we ended one production line to free up capacity. We did not dramatically increase our output of comprehensive feature stories as I’d hoped, instead we spent more time experimenting with new tools and news ways of presenting manufacturing leadership information to our audience.

Those lessons will play a big role in how we spend our time this year. In the first quarter of the year, we grew “Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast” from 400 downloads in November to more than 4,000 in February. We’ve published comprehensive articles on supply chain challenges, cybersecurity, leadership and hiring practices. And, we’ve expanded the scope of expertise for our bi-weekly livestream series by inviting experts from our parent company’s other brands.

And, we’ve accomplished these digital changes during massive upheaval in the publishing industry. The move away from print protected IndustryWeek from the rising costs of paper and postage, but changes to Google’s algorithm reduced traffic to most news sites throughout the year. Thankfully, we continued to serve our loyal audience – people who receive our newsletters or have registered for the Members Only portions of our site.

For the rest of the year, expect more experimentation. As our editors get more comfortable with audio and video editing tools, we’ll offer our coverage in more ways. And we’re excited to resume live events with this summer’s IW Operations Leadership Summit, three days of education and networking in Indianapolis in June.

But, what’s your take on how we’ve adjusted to the digital world? What suggestions do you have for us? Please share any advice, complaints or frustrations in the comments, or email me at [email protected].

About the Author

Robert Schoenberger

Editor-in-Chief

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/robert-schoenberger-4326b810

Bio: Robert Schoenberger has been writing about manufacturing technology in one form or another since the late 1990s. He began his career in newspapers in South Texas and has worked for The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi; The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky; and The Plain Dealer in Cleveland where he spent more than six years as the automotive reporter. In 2014, he launched Today's Motor Vehicles (now EV Manufacturing & Design), a magazine focusing on design and manufacturing topics within the automotive and commercial truck worlds. He joined IndustryWeek in late 2021.

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