My job just got a lot more involved. I have been editor of WaterWorld for nearly four years and have seen the magazine grow in size and increase in frequency to 10 issues a year from just six. During that same period our parent company, PennWell Publishing Co., has been growing by leaps and bounds, founding a number of new magazines and acquiring others.
PennWell is a global publishing company based in Tulsa, Okla. It publishes more than 40 technical magazines in a wide variety of fields, including the oil and gas industry, electric power and high technology. Its flagship publication is the Oil & Gas Journal, published weekly worldwide.
Recently PennWell acquired three international magazines formerly published by McDonald Publishing Co. They include Water & Wastewater International, Waste Management & the Environment, and Prevencion de la Contaminacion. The magazines have been added to what is now the WaterWorld group.
PennWell acquired the McDonald publications because of their strategic fit with WaterWorld Magazine, which serves the Municipal Water/Wastewater Industry in the United States and Canada.
Water & Wastewater International targets the global water industry, with circulation in Latin America, Europe, Africa and Asia. Waste Management & the Environment provides information on waste management, remediation, monitoring and recycling in Europe, Africa and Asia. Prevencion de la Contaminacion is a similar magazine published in Spanish for Latin America.
Water & Wastewater International and WaterWorld together will provide worldwide coverage of the water and wastewater markets. The global water market, both municipal and industrial, is growing at a slow but steady pace, with a current value estimated at between $350 billion and $600 billion worldwide. Rapid growth and construction is occurring in various corners of the world, including Southeast Asia and Latin America. While growth is slower in other parts of the world, most analysts agree that the infrastructure needs of developing countries are enormous.
Margaret Shake, longtime publisher of WaterWorld, will serve as publisher of the three acquisitions. I have the pleasure of assuming editorial supervision of the magazines and will continue in my role as Editor of WaterWorld. Pamela Wolfe for many years has served as editor for the three McDonald publications and will continue to be instrumental in their production at PennWell.
As a global information company, PennWell organizes conferences and exhibitions, publishes technical magazines, newsletters, maps and books, has a research division and maintains a variety of industry databases. The company also is keenly aware that the world has entered the electronic age and sees the Internet as an indispensable source of information gathering and dissemination.
If you get a chance, please visit the WaterWorld web site at http://www.waterworld.com. It features news and information about the U.S. water industry, and a large, searchable database filled with information on water treatment equipment and technologies available on the market. Within the next few weeks, an Internet site will be established for the three new acquisitions. On those sites, readers will be able to request information on products appearing in the magazines, change their subscription information, and contact the editors.
