DemolitionNews.com is 6 today; we’re almost old enough to know better!
Do you remember how you used to receive your industry news six years and one day ago? It would arrive quarterly; it would be exclusive and elitist (not in a good way); it would be heavily filtered; and it would be past its sell-by date even before you’d opened the envelope. And then, although some still abide by this outmoded method of communication, something changed.
On this day in 2008, DemolitionNews was born as a result of some beer-fuelled brainstorming between myself and the then incoming IDE president John Woodward in an Istanbul hotel.
The premise was remarkably simple. All the major industry trade associations either had their own magazine which covered only the activities of their members; or the associations had a “commercial publication” in their pocket to do likewise. Our aim, however, was to pull together all the relevant demolition news regardless of association membership and geographic location. And so, on that fateful day, we set out to create the definitive demolition industry news resource.
In our first week, we attracted a staggering 60 views (although, admittedly, most of them were from us checking to see if it was still online). Today, we receive 80 views per hour on even the slowest Sunday. In fact, we topped that figure on Christmas Day last year.
During the intervening six years, we have produced just under 5,000 stories; brought you countless numbers of demolition videos; and become the de facto destination for breaking news and exclusive stories.
It’s not always been easy. We have upset a few people along the way (primarily the established industry media); we have been threatened with the occasional writ and worse; and we have seen DemolitionNews slowly eat into our leisure and vacation time.
But it’s been worth it. Each month, around 40,000 industry professionals check into the DemolitionNews website either via computer or, increasingly, by mobile phone app.
We set out to create an up-to-the-minute online magazine; somehow we wound up creating a global community of like-minded industry professionals that is bigger than all the industry associations combined.
So to all those of you for whom reading DemolitionNews is a part of your daily routine; those that pop by occasionally; those that have left comments, sent us videos and photos; and even those that we have upset along the way. Thank you for your support.
A magazine is nothing without its readers. And if you’re reading this, you’re part of the greatest, most communicative, interactive and loyal readership anyone could wish for.
Here’s to another six years.
