In Business with You
John Haystead
Editor-in-Chief
As I hope you`ve noticed, the look-and-feel of CleanRooms magazine is quite a bit different for 1995. And, more importantly, I hope you`ve also noted that the extent and direction of the publication`s coverage is also different, reflecting what we believe are the evolving needs of the contamination control community.
Since PennWell Publishing acquired CleanRooms last May, a continuous process has been underway to make an already successful publication better for bothare readership and our advertisers–the guiding principle being that satisfying the former guarantees the latter. We`ve listened closely to your feedback and believe our changes and additions reflect what you`ve told us.
The cover of this issue carries our editorial mission statement and, while nothing has been removed from our coverage (in fact our New Product coverage is significantly expanded), we`ve added a much more pro-active, news-gathering approach–going beyond a standard-reliance on news releases to staff-researched and reported information on activities and developments of immediate interest to con-tamination-control professionals.
Well that`s something about who we are, but what about who you are? Although advertising people are usually intimately aware of the circulation makeup of the trade magazines they support, individual readers often are not. For your information, you are one of 41,413 readers by last count.* About 25.1% of you work in the semiconductor industry (not surprisingly the biggest category), followed by pharmaceuticals and biomed/tech at 19.8%. Other industries significantly represented are data storage (7.1%), aerospace (6.3%), healthcare (5.9%), and automotive (3.7%). There are many others, but the point is that the users of contamination control technology are clearly a diverse group.
By looking at these numbers, we can tell something about the needs of our readers, but not nearly enough. We can also talk to our advertisers and to people in the various industries they supply, but that`s still not enough. To really be in touch with you, our readers, we need to get your direct input. It may seem obvious, but it bears repeating, that a successful trade publication is critically dependent on the creation of a symbiotic relationship between its writers, readers, and advertisers. The flip side is that an aggressive, committed trade publication can make a real contribution toward generating and maintaining a healthy, thriving industry.
So, while we`re in the publishing business, we`re also in business with you–whether that business is semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, automobiles or any other member of the growing list of industries that benefit from the use of contamination control technology, and we`re certainly in business with the scientists, engineers, technicians and companies who develop and produce it. 1995 looks like its going to be a pretty good year. We at CleanRooms magazine are looking forward to telling you all about it.
*BPA Audit June 1994. Numbers quoted reference general reader categories.