Kickstart: Happy birthday, Plastics News

Today marks another anniversary and the start of a new publishing year for Plastics News. Our first issue published on March 6, 1989, so we're 36 years old.

We're to the point where we have a few reporters on staff who weren't born when PN started publishing. If you're a reader who remembers getting your first issue in the mail, then you're officially … old.

I joined PN in 1991, so the brand was already nearly two years old. I remember first visiting the Akron, Ohio, office in the spring of 1990. I was interviewing for a job with Rubber & Plastics News, and the editor, Ed Noga, generously took me downstairs to meet Bob Grace, the editor of PN. Bob was working on PN's first ranking of injection molders, and he had a big paper chart on the wall showing the progress.

PN had an opening about eight months later, so I came back to Akron to interview with Bob, Publisher Chris Chrisman and Managing Editor Ron Shinn. Chris was so enthusiastic, he had me convinced PN was already making a profit (it wasn't). So I left a steady job at a daily newspaper in Virginia to become a reporter at PN, and it's been a great ride ever since.

Since I wasn't at PN for the actual launch, I asked a few Crain Communications veterans for their recollections.

Bruce Meyer started as a reporter at Rubber & Plastics News in February 1988. Today RPN is called Rubber News, and Bruce is the editor. Here's what he remembers about the launch of PN:

"When Ernie Zielasko founded Rubber & Plastics News in 1971 to cover the rubber and tire manufacturing industries, he included the '& Plastics' in the name because he had dreams of expanding the publication to cover the ever-growing plastics sector. And while RPN did some crossover into plastics coverage, it kept a clear focus on rubber and tires.

"But even though Ernie sold Rubber & Plastics News to Crain Communications (staying on as editor and publisher until about 1987), the vision to start a standalone publication to cover the news of the plastics industry never went away.

"In 1988, some of those who had worked with Ernie at RPN put a pitch together to start up Plastics News, and Crain Communications gave it a go-ahead, with the launch slated in early 1989. I've had a front-row seat to how the publication took an aggressive approach to objectively covering the news of the sector, leading it to hold the top position it enjoys 36 years later."

As I mentioned, Bob Grace was PN's first editor. He was hired a year before the launch, and recalls pitching the newspaper to some skeptical plastics folks:

"Back in late 1988 I can still clearly recall telling some industry contacts about our plans to launch a weekly business newspaper for the plastics industry. One in particular sighed and said, 'Oh great, another one. I don't have time to read all of them already.'

"He had a point –– there were at least eight or nine monthly (or less frequent) plastics publications at the time.

"I insisted that we planned to be different, to deliver timely, independently reported news that impacted businesses –– resin pricing, mergers and acquisitions, bankruptcies, political policies, data, lawsuits, new technology, etc. He said, 'Yeah, yeah, you're all going to be different.' So I suggested that he'd just have to wait and see and judge for himself.

"Flash forward 36 years, and Plastics News is still here, still reporting (now) daily news, without fear or favor. And most of the other publications are long gone. I was fortunate to have participated in the first 25 of those years as PN's editor and editorial director and to have worked with some truly gifted journalists in that time. Congratulations to Don Loepp and his entire team for a job well done."

Finally, Rich Williams was PN's editorial cartoonist from its launch until early last year. He worked from home in nearby Medina, Ohio, and remembers this about those early days:

"I wasn't there day to day, but I could sense excitement around the new venture. It was Chris Chrisman's brainchild. He wanted a strong editorial section, complete with cartoons, and brought me in. Everyone was great to me; I always felt the staff worked as a team to put out the best product possible. They helped educate me about the industry, but allowed me the space to freely comment and create. I was always grateful for that.

"Congrats on the 36 years!"