The “back story” on this is a familiar one in any industry that has experienced consolidation. For decades, ID magazine was part of Cahners Publishing Co., a pioneer in business-to-business publishing. Cahners was acquired in the 1970s, and then kept becoming part of a larger conglomerate.

 

Decisions about the magazine were made less with regard to its value in this niche and strategic opportunities and more on how it fit into a much bigger system. At a certain point, the numbers take over and cost-cutting strips away the very resources that created the value. The sad part of this story is the impact on the heart and soul of any publication – the people who month by month, day by day, formed the relationships and chronicled the evolution of this industry. 
 

I was sincerely sorry to hear the news. Modern Distribution Management is 43-years-old, and is one of only a few subscription newsletters that old. In 1967, MDM founder Van Ness Philip left his job as editor of Industrial Distribution, then published and owned by McGraw Hill, to launch MDM. He had a vision for a way to create value; his experience at ID lead to the birth of MDM. It turned out to be a solid foundation.

 

In my 18 years as editor and now publisher of MDM, I’ve hired and worked with former ID staffers, and have always respected the quality of publication, reporting and the integrity of its staff. MDM Associate Publisher Craig Riley, who has been part of the MDM team for more than two years now, was publisher of ID for six years and worked for the publication for 20 years.

 

It has only been in the past five years or so that MDM and Industrial Distribution have been competitive, as MDM has built out its online offerings –  email newsletters, Web site and Webcasts. I truly believe our competition in the space we overlapped made both of our publications better.

 

It’s never easy to lose a valuable institution. I’ve spoken this week with distributors whose fathers and grandfathers were quoted in the publication – from the 1920s on! Before the Internet, it was the primary network for anyone in this field of industrial distribution, connecting manufacturers, manufacturer representatives, distributors, and service providers.

 

I know the staff will land on its feet and continue to find ways to contribute and add value to this industry. As someone who has been involved in business-to-business publishing for more than 25 years, I tip my hat in honor of what has been the primary educational and communication medium for this industry for a century. Industrial Distribution, by any standard, had a long and productive life of service.