Editor's Focus: Staying in Touch

The staff of Recycling Today prides itself in its ability to assemble a package
of news items and feature articles that provides a window to what has
occurred in the recycling industry in the past 30 days and a look at what might happen in the next 30 days. The benefit of a monthly publication is that it provides time for writers and editors to follow up on breaking news and provide detail and context to stories. Readers are then presented with an eye-catching package of readable news departments and features, offered along with advertisements from the industry’s key vendors and suppliers.

The drawback to this monthly effort is that even a magazine’s most loyal readers also want to know what is occurring since that magazine’s news items were written, printed and mailed out. To borrow a cliché often used by television news shows, the news never stops happening. Recyclers, like everyone else, need to keep current with events.

GIE Media Inc., the publishing company that owns Recycling Today and several other industry-leading trade publications, has made a major commitment to bridging that 30-day gap for its readers. Recycling Today readers with Internet access can log onto www.RecyclingToday.com for access to news stories that are posted every business day.

The site provides a way for recyclers to keep current with news affecting the scrap metal, paper, plastics, tires and construction and demolition (C&D) markets, as well as other niche markets. The breaking news section is just one component of an information-intensive site that also provides access to the archives of Recycling Today articles, links to the Web sites of equipment makers and a long list of other features.

The editors of Recycling Today and RecyclingToday.com have one additional way to reach readers that has proven highly popular: our weekly e-newsletter. We’ve heard from a growing number of readers who look forward to this Tuesday afternoon dispatch that offers links to more than a dozen high-priority news items that have been posted within the past week. The industry’s suppliers have not been forgotten in this format either, as they can procure advertising space and submit new product and installation information to be part of the e-newsletter.

We’re following up on the success of the Recycling Today e-newsletter with another e-mailed product for readers of sister publication C&D Recycler. C&D Recycler readers with Internet and e-mail access will soon have a Website to visit—www.cdrecycler.com—and a monthly e-newsletter that will help the magazine’s staff stay in touch with readers of the bi-monthly print publication between issues.

Like C&D Recycler magazine, the e-newsletter will concentrate on news affecting the construction and demolition industries, with a focus on the recycling of concrete, asphalt, wood and other materials generated and consumed by the construction, demolition and road building industries.

If you’re not currently receiving the Recycling Today e-newsletter or if you’d like to start receiving the C&D Recycler e-newsletter, please contact Dan Sandoval at dsandoval@RecyclingToday.com. He’ll be happy to add you to one or both e-mail lists at your request.

We’ll still work hard to create dynamic magazines that offer a window on current events and a look at what lies ahead. Now, with our Web sites and e-newsletters, we can also reach out and provide news and advertising information to help bridge the gap between issues.

-Brian Taylor