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November 9, 2009 | Galynn Nordstrom

As a starry-eyed journalism student in high school, I was taken on a tour of the production plant and editorial offices of the Minneapolis Tribune (now the StarTribune, after the morning and afternoon papers merged in 1982), and listened to reporters, editors and pressmen talk about how much pride they took in their work, and their newspaper. One proofreader dared us to find a mistake in that day’s edition, offering to buy dinner for anyone who found an error of either fact or composition. We didn’t collect.

As an assistant editor for Lakewood Publications, my first job in magazine publishing, I typed my copy onto special layout sheets, sent once a week to a small press operator nearby, who returned long paper galleys for us to proofread and paste up. During deadline crunches, we sometimes waited on the corner of 8th and Hennepin in downtown Minneapolis for our typesetter’s battered green pickup; he’d slow down and hand us the galleys through the window. During one particularly stressful issue, he also brought us a pizza. But when that first Apple II showed up, “floppy” took on a whole new meaning.

As senior editor of Specialty Fabrics Review, I now work on a docked and networked laptop PC, producing not only a monthly magazine but helping with a newly interactive website (www.specialtyfabricsreview.com), with daily news updates, searchable content archived not only by issue but by market, and even a weekly blog (well, almost) from “Miss Management,” who frankly deserves a much wider audience than she’s getting. Devoted as I am to print publishing, there is more than one way to produce a magazine.

Most industries, including specialty fabrics, have something similar happening as technology seems to outpace tradition. In “Resilience through innovation” on page 45 of this issue, a report on IFAI Expo 2009, you’ll find information on e-textiles, fabrics that protect, fabrics that communicate, fabrics that heal themselves and help to heal us, fabrics that generate power, fabrics that change color, fabrics that are recycled and recyclable: today’s materials and tomorrow’s opportunities. You’ll also find reports on on current market trends and growth industries, such as shade structures and wide-format graphics. A third major theme at the show focused on operational excellence—the same kinds of best business practices we’ve been hearing about for years, updated for a new fiscal and physical climate.

The message is quality, and value. IFAI Expo attendees can put together their own educational programs and show floor visits to create their own custom blend of high-tech materials and traditional products, or traditional materials in high-tech markets.

Specialty Fabrics Review creates an editorial calendar each year to present balanced—and useful—coverage of the entire specialty fabrics industry. You may be in business in only a few of the markets we cover each month, but there’s something to learn from every market. In print, you read what we’ve selected, from everyone’s input. Online, you can search the current issue, back issues and all archived material, so if you’re focused on a particular market, product, process or company, you can select just the content you need.

And bringing a pizza with you when you deliver the end results to your customer is still a fine idea.

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