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:
- Production Pulse: 8 hours, 14 minutes, 27 seconds of live video conversations covering everything from Ford investing in new battery technology to additive manufacturing to the future of U.S. Steel.
- Editorial Webinars: 9 hours of interactive webinars featuring lean manufacturing experts, economists, lawyers and IW Best Plants Award winners.
- IW U.S. 500: The biggest revamp of our annual list of the 500 largest publicly traded manufacturing companies in the United States in more than a decade. By carefully analyzing hundreds of corporate filings, we eliminated companies that design products but send out manufacturing to their suppliers.
- Talent Advisory Board: We assembled a group with dozens of manufacturing leaders involved in hiring, talent management or corporate leadership to regularly discuss how they got to where they are in their careers.
- Young Leaders Series: A special report that profiled six young people who had reached positions of authority within their companies, sharing how they achieved such responsible roles so early in their careers.
- Stratasys Coverage: 13 stories about Stratasys’ bid to buy Desktop Metal, 3D Systems’ bid to buy Stratasys and Nano Dimensions’ efforts to buy into its 3D printing rivals – including lengthy video interviews with the CEOs of Desktop Metal and Stratasys.
- UAW Coverage: 36 articles or videos about the United Auto Workers labor negotiations and strikes against automakers in 2023, including live video conversations with high-ranking UAW officials and extensive coverage of what was at stake in the broader manufacturing industry.
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].
