7/14/2009
HEADLINES
FIN Launches GlobalFastenerNews.com
Fastener Industry News launched its new website, GlobalFastenerNews.com, in conjunction with the original newsletter’s 30th anniversary.
FIN was first published as a traditional print newsletter on July 10, 1979. News has been posted regularly on FastenerNews.com since January 1, 2000.
At GlobalFastenerNews.com you’ll find articles you won’t see anywhere else. More than just posting press releases, as journalists we research and develop original stories. Our editors travel more than 50,000 miles a year to interview key fastener people and report on industry conferences and trade shows.
Working with news partnerships developed over the years, GlobalFastenerNews.com will bring more international news to the industry.
There are now separate sections for North American, Asian/Pacific and European news, along with free feature articles and other resources for the entire fastener industry. And at the end of each article there is a quick and easy way for readers to comment on articles.
More subscriber benefits will be added in the coming months. Premium subscribers will have access to a decade of online articles.
Below are the initial features for the launch of GlobalFastenerNews.com.
• To test your fastener knowledge and encourage fastener education there is a daily quick quiz. The first round of questions and answers are provided by the Fastener Training Institute.
• There are classified ads for help wanted and jobs wanted, products and services and businesses for sale.
• One of the new features is old news – the Fastener History section launches with dozens of articles from FIN’s three decades of news plus histories of multiple current fastener companies.
FIN articles over the decades reveal even earlier history. For example, a 1981 FIN article on Southern Screw tells the famous fastener manufacturer’s history back to its founding in 1945 by Fritz Jensen and acquisition in 1955 by NL Industries.
Other history postings include the full list of Industrial Fasteners Institute chairmen back to 1931.
The history articles also show industry trends. A 1983 FIN article tells of fastener plant closings. A 1991 article announces a major fastener company setting up a Maquiladora joint venture plant in Mexico. In 1995 retired importer Eric Cohn recalled earlier decades when imported fasteners were delivered at night.
There are lively features too, such as the 1997 FIN story on a fastener executive named the “cheapest CEO in America” and a 1980 article about a distributor using donuts to market washers.
Among the first Fastener History articles is a three-part story about Mel Kirsner, whose fastener museum was destroyed in a 2003 Southern California wildfire.
Though the museum is gone, nuggets of information were preserved in FIN articles and are part of the new GlobalFastenerNews.com history section dedicated to Kirsner.
The Fastener History section on GlobalFastenerNews.com is free to the entire industry.
• The 2009 FIN Calendar lists 120 fastener events and it is available online for your planning. The FIN Calendar was first published in 1996 in print. It remains available in print as well as online.
The 2009 FIN Calendar is sponsored by Brighton-Best, EZ Sockets, Heads & Threads International, INxSQL, Kanebridge, Metric & Multistandard, ND Industries, Nucor, Nylok, Porteous, Rotor Clip and XL Screw.
• The Association section provides background information on 35 fastener organizations worldwide, plus 12 technical organizations and 20 related associations and events.
• The Trade Show section gives dates and contact information for fastener shows around the world.
• The Fastener Quality section provides the Fastener Industry Education Group’s 20-page White Paper entitled “The Proper Designation and Use of Standards by End-Users and Suppliers Is Critical to Fastener Quality.”
FIEG is a joint effort of the National Fastener Distributors Association and the Industrial Fasteners Institute to assure the quality of fasteners entering the marketplace. FIN’s Quality section also includes the U.S. Fastener Quality Act.
There are numerous “firsts” – even for FIN – with the new website – such as the quiz, the history section and pictures.
The first GlobalFastenerNews.com picture shows what industry veterans say is the first U.S. presidential visit to a fastener plant.
Why does GlobalFastenerNews.com charge for most articles? The entire publishing industry is struggling with how to financially survive in an online world.
At FIN we provide a service by saving your time. We post only the most pertinent stories and write them concisely. We dig for fastener specific news that you won’t find in the Wall Street Journal or any other business publication.
FIN will continue to publish the traditional print edition as long as subscribers call for it.
Though we are using the new GlobalFastenerNews.com name to emphasize our new reach, we know loyal subscribers still call us “FIN.” We welcome you to use either name.
You have trusted FIN for 30 years. With GlobalFastenerNews.com you can trust FIN for the next 30. ©2009 GlobalFastenerNews.com
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