A personal take on the imminent closure of UK trade magazine, Contract Journal.

Non-UK residents and those with no interest in the vagaries of the UK business-to-business publishing industry can skip this article altogether. But I have today heard of the sad demise of the UK construction magazine Contract Journal which is due to close its doors at the end of the month.

On the face of it, this has very little to do with the demolition industry. Aside from being the incumbent producer of the National Federation of Demolition Contractors’ Yearbook, the magazine generally paid little more than lip service to the demolition side of the business. But this was where I cut my journalistic teeth; the magazine where I first saw my name in a byline; the magazine that gave me my start in a career that I am still plying – to varying degrees of success – some 25 years later.

I joined Contract Journal in 1985/86 as a fledgling reporter, back at a time when we were still using typewriters….MANUAL typewriters! I was given my start in journalism by a guy called Jerry Gosney, the very antithesis of the hard-nosed, hard-bitten editor; but the sort of guy you’d work hard for because you knew it would please him if you did.

I cut my teeth on small, largely forgettable items until one fateful day when the then plant editor – a guy called Adrian Barker (more of him later) – told me that I was going to a Case press conference to report on their new range of skid steer loaders. I am sure he was less than impressed when I asked him what a skid steer loader was.

Despite this inauspicious beginning, when Contract Journal’s owners Reed Business Publishing (now Reed Business Information) bought Plant Managers Journal, I was invited to join the four man (seriously, FOUR) equipment team who did nothing but right about construction equipment, week in and week out.

Whether or not such a commitment to the construction equipment sector was economical never seemed to matter. Contract Journal was fighting a weekly battle for supremacy with its rival Construction News, while Plant Managers Journal (PMJ) was the undisputed market leader in the construction equipment sector.

Adrian Barker left Contract Journal and PMJ in July 1989 to pursue a career in PR, counting the mighty Caterpillar among his many clients. I was to leave exactly a year later, ultimately joining forces with Adrian, first as Adrian Barker Publicity and, latterly, as Advertising & Marketing Solutions. But we retained our links with our former employers, watching editors come and go, investment dwindle, and our dominant and respected equipment team whittled from four to just one.

I went back to PMJ as guest editor for a six month period back in 2007, 17 years after I’d left, and while I was delighted to finally see my name as editor, the PMJ I returned to was a shadow of its former self. And its big sister publication, Contract Journal, was perhaps worse. Even though the magazine’s annual SED exhibition seemed to be supporting them financially, the writing has been on the wall for both CJ and PMJ for quite some time now. And they have finally succumbed to a perfect storm of being part of a publishing group that is actively seeking a buyer, a paper-based printing business that is in terminal decline, and a domestic construction market lacking the advertising funds to keep the magazines afloat.

Contract Journal and PMJ gave the market they serve so much over the years. These magazines helped make SED the behemoth it is today; they brought us the dig-in machine comparisons; they were the first to seriously address the issue of plant theft. These magazines were home to some of the best, most-respected writers in their field: Jerry Gosney, Cathy Watson, Andrew Pring, John D’Arcy, Adrian Barker, Peter Anderson, Lawrie Tootell.

But, come the end of the month, Contract Journal, its online edition, and PMJ will go the way of Plant Hire Executive, MQR and a multitude of other magazines that failed to move with the times and which were ultimately overtaken and swallowed by a recession and a change in reading habits that was beyond their control.

Personally speaking, it’s been quite a while since I actually looked at a paper version of Contract Journal. The pace with which this industry moves just doesn’t suit “dead tree” publishing any longer. But the last time I did see a copy, I was struck by two things. The first was the lack of a big-name writer, a Gosney or a Barker; the type that had the respect (grudging at times) of the entire industry. The second thing that hit me was the size. When I was there, it wasn’t unusual for weekly issues to exceed 80 and even 100 tabloid pages; the equipment section alone would often run to 10 pages or more. The last one I saw was probably 36 little A4 pages in length; the equipment section a sad collection of press releases; the advertising all but gone.

At this point, I am tempted to go into a rant at the owners of the magazine for what they’ve done to the publications that were my babies. And I do believe that they should shoulder some of the responsibility for whittling staff levels to the barest minimum, under-investing online, and generally failing to support what were once market-leading magazines. But such a rant would achieve nothing and would go unheeded in the corridors of the publisher’s Sutton headquarters.

So, instead of anger, I am left merely with a feeling of deep sadness; sadness that all those years of work and dedication will be brought to an end by a memo from a bean counter that had never enjoyed the thrill of seeing their name in print; sadness for the journalists and ad sales staff that will find themselves unemployed in the run up to Christmas; and sadness for my former partner Adrian Barker who sadly died three years ago and who is probably turning in his grave at this news.

And above all, a deep personal sense of loss at what has become of the starting point of my writing career. It’s like watching your childhood home being demolished.

Demo Boys merchandise is now available for the lady in your life.

You might recall that I recently shot a video of myself modeling a newly-arrived Demo Boys t-shirt. Well, that video got a lot of attention and we were swamped with messages such as: “Isn’t your office messy?”; “With a face like that, I’d stick to radio; and “try standing a little closer to the shaving razor next time, monkey-boy”.

However, by far the most commonly asked question was “is there a lady’s version?” Until now, the answer has been a resounding, emphatic and faintly sexist NO!

However, we have just heard word that the ladies can get their own version; and while the term Bird was popular in the UK around the time Benny Hill was kicked off our TV screens, we can’t help finding them more than a little fetching in a knowing, ironic and retro kind of way.

To secure a Demo Birds t-shirt for the lady in your life in time for Xmas, just click here. And while you’re there, order yourself a long sleeve Demo Boys t-shirt to keep out the cold when that lady makes you sleep in the garden till Boxing Day for referring to her as a bird!!

UK and US separated by more than just an expanse of water.

It is often said that the US and the UK are two nations divided by a common language; and it’s a fact that is borne out by any Englishman that has ever said to an American that he was “going for a fag”. But while we happily stand shoulder-to-shoulder during armed conflicts across the world, there is more separating these two nations than some quirks of language and two thousand miles of ocean.

For all its reputation as a litigious nation awash with ambulance-chasing lawyers willing to sue their own grandmothers for a fast buck, the US approach to the crime of contributing to an employee’s death is seen only as a misdemeanor, carrying a maximum prison sentence of six months and a maximum fine of $70,000 (Source: HySafe Buzz).

Compare and contrast that with that of the UK which two years ago passed the Corporate Manslaughter Act 2007 that carries with it an unlimited fine.

Against this background, the following video – 16 deaths a day – (though not demolition specific) makes for extremely uncomfortable viewing:

Final of three blasts drops last section of Miami Bridge into Missouri River.

Three successful and planned implosions over a period of just over a week have dropped the Missouri River bridge at Miami. This video captures the last blast.

Just when you thought it was safe to whisper the name Executive Inn…

By the time the multiple fires had been put out, the TV crews had put away their cameras, the local landfill was filled to bursting point and most (if not all) of the Executive Inn hotel in Owensboro was leveled, I had grown weary of following the twists and turns of this long running saga. In fact, it had got so bad that each time I typed the letters Ex in succession, my fingers added the letters e.c.u.t.i.v.e on auto-pilot.

So imagine our horror when we heard that the Big E had a sister building that was also to be demolished “within weeks”. Surely, we thought, it can’t be as bad this time…can it?

Certainly, the fact that part of the Executive Inn in Evansville is to be retained rules out failed implosions; and maybe, just maybe, some lessons will have been learned from the demolition of the Owensboro hotel.

But reading initial reports from the Evansville Courier & Press, there are some parts that have an all too familiar a ring to them: …the building is expected to be razed “within weeks”; the method of demolition isn’t yet certain.

We will be watching with battle-hardened interest.

Demolition crews take out telephone lines in Brookline.

Excess noise, vibration, dust and vehicle movements are just some of the numerous reasons for the public to complain about demolition works.

But one Massachusets demolition crew has apparently found a novel way of heading off demolition-related complaints; simply rip open the cable line serving 350 nearby homes and leave residents without a telephone line.

Click here for the full details.

Safedem’s William Sinclair explains how he is addressing drug abuse in the workplace.

Several months ago, Demolition News produced an audio podcast featuring Building Health‘s Nichola Elvy discussing the potentially explosive issue of drugs use in the demolition workplace. That podcast, the most downloaded on our iTunes area, led to a great deal of debate and discussion.

Fresh from winning both the Demolition Company of the Year and Explosive Demolition trophies at the inaugural Demolition Awards in Amsterdam last weekend, Safedem managing director William Sinclair explains how his company went about tackling this highly contentious issue:

When I first wanted to introduce drug testing at Safedem, I firmly believed I was acting responsibly; after all demolition is a safety critical activity and everyone knows drugs can effect performance, reaction time, etc.

But now we have the systems and procedures in place I know I have taken another step to ensuring I have helped create a safer demolition workplace.

Demolition delays could serve as economic wet blanket, attorney warns.

A state Supreme Court judge issued a temporary restraining order Tuesday barring demolition of two Washington Avenue buildings near the Capitol as the Historic Albany Foundation started a legal effort to save them.

But an attorney for the Fort Orange Club, the 129-year-old Washington Avenue landmark that hopes to use the space for additional parking, dismissed the significance of the order, noting the private club has no plans of razing the buildings until its own dispute with the city is resolved.

The club sued the city Friday after officials declined to immediately issue a demolition permit and instead forwarded its request to the Planning Board. Without a permit, the club cannot legally tear down the 19th-century office buildings at 118-120 Washington Ave. Hours after the order, the Common Council’s planning committee unanimously forwarded the ordinance – which would require Planning Board review of all non-emergency demolitions not in historic districts – to the full council for passage on Monday.

But the committee’s approval came with an amendment that would also impose a moratorium on all non-emergency demolitions between the date of the ordinance’s passage and the date it becomes effective, 30 days later.

An attorney for the club, however, warned lawmakers that the proposed ordinance is not only illegal under state law but would act as a wet blanket to economic development at a time when the city can ill afford it. “This is a heck of a thing in this economy and in this city to be doing something like that,” the attorney Bob Sweeney told the committee.

Read the full story here.

Protestor who delayed demolition of Bowstring Bridge charged with trespass.

A woman who chained herself to a derelict Victorian bridge in Leicester in a bid to stop its demolition has been charged with aggravated trespass.

All work was stopped when a 39-year-old woman climbed up Bowstring Bridge in the city’s West End at about 0600 GMT on Monday.

She ended her protest voluntarily after almost 12 hours and was brought down to safety by police officers.

Further details here.spass.

A fatal building collapse and an unexplained fire serve as timely reminder of demolition risks.

Yesterday was a bad day for the demolition world. First came the news that five people had died in a building collapse in China; this was followed by an as-yet unexplained blaze at a site in British Columbia.

Five people died and four were injured after a building collapsed during demolition in Luoyang City, central China’s Henan Province, on Monday, according to the municipal government. The four injured were stable in hospital, according to a statement from the city government Tuesday.

Yonggang Road Construction Co Ltd was demolishing a residential building which used to house worker families of China Luoyang Float Glass Group when the accident occurred at 5:45 pm Monday. Further details here.

Meanwhile, Vancouver firefighters battled a fire at the Little Mountain social housing complex in Vancouver on Tuesday night. The fire broke out just before 6 p.m. at the site at Main Street and east 33rd Avenue, where demolition crews have been working as part of a controversial redevelopment project.

There were no reports of injuries, and no word yet on what might have started the fire.

Further details here.