Wait a day before hitting the return button is good advice when you are upset. I waited two days in this case, just in case.
The owner of Paper, Film and Foil Converter magazine, Penton Media Inc., has decided to discontinue producing the print magazine and all its electronic media products. The August 2011 edition is the last print issue, and the September editorial content will be posted on the website with a Table of Contents available in the last E-Clips e-newsletter edition on August 23. The pffc-online.com website will be open for people to find content until the end of October. [At this time there have been no announcements on whether the print or digital media will be sold or go dark (Converting Magazine’s demise) – ed.)
Paper, Film and Foil Converter was the longest continuously running magazine carrying regular web handling content ]1[. It began its debut in March 1927 as Envelope Industry. After several name changes it became the Paper, Film, and Foil Converter. This trade magazine had one of the largest monthly subscriptions of any journal in the web handling industries. The monthly magazine carried regular web handling content, such as Tim Walker’s Web Lines first penned in 2002. However, he was preceded by an even more prolific author, Herbert Weiss, who in addition to numerous articles published no less than five books.
My sympathies and best wishes to Yolanda Simonsis (editor), Tim Walker (Web Lines), Dr. Kelley Robinson (Static Beat) and the many others that have contributed to this magazine which has served the web and converting industries for generations.
The shuttering of this magazine follows quickly on the heels of the demise of Converting Magazine just over one year ago (Webhandlingblog 4/20/2010). This means that while one decade ago there were three large (over 30,000 subscriptions) magazines carrying regular web-handling content, now there are none of any size (the newborn Converting Quarterly excepted). Does this mean that dead trees are, well, dead? Or has the world moved on to the digital age? Have our industries (there are many) had their fill of web handling and converting? Is (web) manufacturing in the US in a slow downward spiral where loss of technical prowess/communication leads to poorer returns and thus to less investment in research and communication and so on?
My opinion is that the biggest loss will be to the next generation of readers and writers. At best they will have the sloppy medium of unedited, conscience-stream, blog-like products (like this one); at worst we will have Linkedin/Facebook/Twitter feeds of an incomplete sentence or even phrase. Next step: the science of web handling via emoticons?
1. Anon., “Standing the Test of Time: A Look at PFFC's 75-Year History,” Paper Film Foil Converter, September 2002 also http://pffc-online.com/mag/paper_standing_test_timea/
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