CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Four new trade publications covering plastics auxiliary equipment, such as dryers, granulators and robots, will land on the desks of industry readers in 1997. First issues of all four magazines are scheduled for March or April - just a few months before NPE 1997, the big, triennial trade show set for June 16-20 in Chicago. Three of the magazines will be new-product tabloids that, according to their publishers, will continue to be published after NPE. Here is a rundown:
PT Auxiliaries, with a planned circulation of more than 40,000, will publish its first issue in March, with other 1997 issues in June, September and December. The publisher is Plastics Technology magazine, part of New York-based Bill Communications Inc. Bill Communications' parent firm is United Dutch Publications, known as VNU, which owns consumer and trade magazines in Europe and the United States. Plastics Technology Publisher Gary Rekstad said plans call for making the magazine a monthly in 1998.
Plastics Auxiliaries Magazine is being founded by Mal Riley, who retired as publisher of Plastics Technology in 1994. The magazine is based in Tequesta, Fla. The publication, with a circulation of 40,000, will start with a March/April issue, then continue bimonthly through 1997. Riley also plans to go monthly in 1998.
Plastics Product Review in Big Rapids, Mich., is set to premier in April, with a circulation of about 39,000, then continue monthly. Publisher Adam Schultz said the family-owned publication will cover injection molding primary machinery and auxiliary equipment and products that serve injection molding.
The magazine, which plans to accept advertising, will publish results of tests of machines done by independent auditors. Schultz, who has worked in the industry, received an associate's degree in plastics from Ferris State University in Big Rapids in August.
The fourth publication is Modern Plastics Auxiliary Equipment with Buyers' Guide, coming out in April as a special issue, but separate from the magazine's regular April issue. Modern Plastics, a McGraw-Hill magazine in New York, has a North American subscription of about 55,000.
The plastics industry has been without a new-product equipment digest since 1994, when Advanstar Communications Inc. closed Plastics Machinery & Equipment.