Note: This article is the second installment in a two-part series. If you missed the first part, you can (and should!) read it here. — Paul
Back in mid-June, I had breakfast with my friend Liz. We caught up on various topics, and then she smiled and said, “I have a present for you.”
She handed me a shopping bag. I reached in and pulled out a small stack of magazines. But not just any magazines — they were trade magazines! Sugar Journal, Plastics Business, and a bunch more (as shown in the photo above). Liz said she’d gotten them from a friend who was moving to Europe and clearing out most of his possessions, including a bunch of trade mags. She knew I’d be interested in them (because, as I explained yesterday, I love trade magazines), and snagged them for me. Now that’s a thoughtful gift!
As I looked through the publications, I noticed that each one had an accompanying promotional one-sheet, almost like a press release, from something called the Trade Journal Cooperative. Here’s a typical example, which accompanied a copy of Ratchet and Wrench magazine:
Whoa! It appeared that the Trade Journal Cooperative was a quarterly subscription service that provided enrollees with a curated sampling of trade publications, sort of like a Book of the Month Club for inconspicuists. What a brilliant way to spread the gospel of niche-specific content! And although I mentioned in yesterday’s post that many trade mags had shifted from print to digital, the Cooperative seemed to have identified a bunch of interesting titles that were still publishing print editions.