Heat Treat Today publishes four print magazines a year, and included in each is a letter from the publisher, Doug Glenn. This letter first appeared in Heat Treat Today‘s Trade Show Edition, September 2019.

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There is a history in every industry and it is fascinating to go back and see how we’ve gotten to where we are, especially when you think about trade publications in the heat treat industry. These publications are quite a bit more important than many know. They’ve helped advance the industry and have played a major role keeping the industry abreast of the latest technologies.

In the heat treat world, the first industry publication appeared in the Steel City, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, compliments of I. Stanley Wishoski. In 1924, Mr. Wishoski published the first edition of Fuels & Furnaces, which changed its name to Industrial Heating in the early 1930s. Industrial Heating is still around pumping out excellent heat treat content every month.

Mr. Wishoski’s son-in-law, Charles (Chuck) McClelland, assumed ownership of Industrial Heating. Some industry veterans, Mike Kasprzyk of INEX, Inc. for example, actually met Mr. McClelland, a privilege I had only once in passing.

There were four individuals associated with Mr. McClelland that have contributed significantly to the publishing industry. Stan Lasday was hired by McClelland and was the editor of Industrial Heating for years, retiring in roughly 1994. Two of Chuck McClelland’s daughters worked for Industrial Heating: Beth McClelland and Becky McClelland. Becky is still working for the publication. Kathy Pisano, a name very familiar to hundreds of heat treat industry vendors, is also still employed by Industrial Heating. Both Kathy and Becky are, by my estimation, two of the great unsung heroes of the heat treat publishing world.

In roughly 1989, the McClelland family sold Industrial Heating to what is today BNP Media. Jim Henderson was the owner of BNP at that time and his righthand man was Dave Lurie who was responsible for assimilating the new publication into the company. Dave did a masterful job building Industrial Heating from being the #2 or #3 magazine in the industry to being the number one publication. In fact, during his tenure and the 20 years that I was with the publication, Industrial Heating tripled in size and is still the leading publication in the industry under the leadership of publisher Erik Klingerman and seasoned editors Bill Mayer and Reed Miller.

In the early 1990s, the number one heat treating publication was Heat Treating. It was owned by Chilton/CBS and later sold to Penton Publishing. Penton struggled with it and changed the size of the publication and its name to Heat Treating Digest. It soon failed and folded.

The Monty (www.themonty) started sometime in the 1990s as the first online only heat treating media outlet. Gordon Montgomery’s son, Jordan, is now involved and seems to be pushing the site to new heights.

Another very competent publishing company from Pelham, Alabama, Media Solutions, started Thermal Processing in the 2000s. This publication was a spinoff of their gear magazine, Gear Solutions. I can personally attest that this is a good group of people doing good work. David and Teresa Cooper along with Chad Morrison are the key players at Thermal Processing.

ASM International started and shuttered one or more heat treat publications over the years – remember Heat Treating Progress? HTPro is ASM’s current mostly-online heat treat e-newsletter. ASM, of course, is a publishing power-house, but mostly with books, not so much with industry publications.

Heat Treat Today, the magazine you’re reading now, started in 2016.

So that’s how we got to where we are today with three print media brands in the North American heat treat market: Industrial Heating, Thermal Processing, and Heat Treat Today, and a couple of digital-only brands, The Monty and HTPro. But more importantly, it is through one or more of these industry trade publications that you’ve learned more than you know about the technologies, processes, products, and companies in the ever-changing heat treat world. HTT