Coal Age's History Starts a New Chapter

摘要

Most of you were probably surprised to read the June editorial from Ted Worthington, the former managing editor of Engineering & Mining Journal (E&MJ), where he said that Coal Age's former owners announced that they were folding the two venerable franchises for mining-related media. We had just returned from a rather successful Longwall USA 2003 Conference & Exhibition, so the timing of the decision caught us off-guard. Long-time readers, however, sensed for quite some time that their trade journal was in trouble. Although accurate at the time, Worthington's message was somewhat premature. The classic Mark Twain quote, "the news of my death has been greatly exaggerated, " comes to mind. During July, Lobos Services rescued both magazines. The new owner was more familiar with Coal Age and views the acquisition of E&MJ as a huge opportunity. The name Lobos is synonymous with trade shows and directories for oil-field services in the Gulf Coast region. It's a privately-held company that obviously believes in the coal business. The new owner offered me a similar position and a chance to rebuild. I accepted.