Lifetime Achievement Award

Here is the full text of Bernie Knill’s acceptance speech for his
Lifetime Achievement Award.

Knill presented the speech during ASBPE's national awards banquet at the Embassy of Finland, June 21, 2000.

It’s hard to proclaim rules to live by in the business press because each publication covers a different market and has a different personality.

We predicted that there would be hang-ups in getting the merchandise that was bought over the Internet last Xmas. Even if the software could handle all the orders—and in some cases it couldn’t—we knew that the makeshift warehousing wouldn’t be able to process all the orders. And since some of the e-suppliers have yet to make a profit, we’ll never know how much it cost to complete the orders that did reach their buyers.

We also knew that a material handling problem was the chief cause of the baggage handling fiasco at Denver International Airport. There the main hang-up was in the material handling software: the algorithms used to call for empty carts to accommodate incoming flights.

Stories like Xmas buying on the Internet and baggage handling at Denver International Airport have made publishing Material Handling Management interesting. But the wide variety of technologies that material handling encompasses—everything from two-wheel hand trucks to automated storage and retrieval systems, from lift trucks to robots—present an ongoing challenge.

Editorial and Advertising

You never get far into a seminar on publishing a magazine in the business press before the subject of advertising influence on editorial content arises.

The problem is that every publication deals with a specific industry, and companies in that industry are likely to be subjects of articles as well as advertising prospects.

By the very nature of our industry, advertising influence is an ongoing concern. While white papers, statements of policy and seminars are of some value, they’re never going to be a permanent solution.

I think that the best guarantees of editorial integrity lie in the answers to these two questions:

1. What are the ethics of your industry? What are the ethics and business practices of the companies and people in your industry?

Those companies and people will expect you to operate the same way. (Of course, even in the most ethical industry, you’re going to find a few rule-breakers, and you’re on your own as far as dealing with them.) As a publication, we have been fortunate that material handling is a mature industry in which the rules of conduct have been established by several strong trade associations.

2. What are the policies and practices of the publication that is your best competitor?

It is hard for a magazine to take the high road when its competitor is taking the low road. Our best competitor, Modern Materials Handling, . . . has always maintained high publishing standards. I’ve noticed that publications new to the industry don’t always have the same level of professionalism.

More Job Opportunities

It used to be that an editor could stay with his or her own magazine and grow. The alternatives were to move to another publication, or take a job in industry, or move to public relations.

Now we have more options. Magazine staffs are bigger, for one. Also, every new technology will spawn a new set of publications. Also, it’s likely that your publication will create spin-offs. Of course, a spin-off is usually produced by the magazine’s regular staff as an additional assignment. Should it succeed, it’s a new opportunity for you to become editor of a publication you helped create.

There’s another job opportunity in custom publishing, in which a company or an industry produces its own magazine. Food, wellness, investments, aging—all have publications for every aspect of the business.

Another new job opportunity is that of Webmaster for your magazine’s online effort. Since the Internet is virtually bottomless, the temptation is to try to fill it up with words—thus the "content provider."

At this point, so much of the Web site content is merely an extension of what the publication prints. I don’t think that a publication can build a Web site following with material written in magazine style. I believe that loyalty among Web site viewers will be the result of efforts of writers who provide real insight into a particular industry and who do it in a short, concise and entertaining way.

Personal Guidelines

There are two rules that have always been a way of life for me. I don’t think you’ll find them in any manual of business press advice, but I’m convinced that they are useful in building readership and creating articles and columns that win awards.

1. Convince sources that you mean it when you say "off the record." And be precise about separating on-the-record interviewing from off-the-record.

I’ve heard speakers at seminars say that nothing is off the record in journalism. I don’t agree, for a number of reasons. First, having off-the-record information gives you an edge when other sources lie to you.

This came in handy in writing about the baggage handling crisis at Denver International Airport. Second, off-the-record information helps you formulate better questions for other sources, who might be answering on the record.

2. Take up a cause (or causes).

Sometimes this means promoting a technology or movement that you believe in, even if nobody else does.

My favorite example involves vertical reciprocating conveyors, which are platforms or cages that move up and down in guides between two or more levels, such as floors. Now, this definition is roughly the same as that of an elevator. The difference is that an elevator has safety and comfort devices since it carries passengers, while a vertical reciprocating conveyor is allowed to carry freight only.

A vertical reciprocating conveyor is a lot cheaper than an elevator, so it’s an ideal solution for companies in old, multistory buildings in which the freight elevator has conked out, and replacement or repair would be prohibitively expensive.

Thus, the elevator industry sensed a potential competitor. Their reaction was to turn elevator inspectors loose on vertical reciprocating conveyors.

(Elevator inspectors usually came up through that industry and had ties to elevator manufacturers or distributors.) By mandating the same safety and operating standards for VRCs that applied to passenger elevators, the inspectors would red-tag a vertical reciprocating conveyor as a "non-complying elevator" and shut it down.

To me, this was a cause that needed to be addressed in the material handling industry as a case of restraint of trade through illegal regulation. So for 10 years I wrote a monthly column—"The Red Tag Report"—that basically explained how the individual state elevator inspectors were illegally depriving them of low-cost alternatives to expensive freight elevators.

Gradually, the states cleaned up the worst of their practices. And, freed from oppressive regulation, the manufacturers of vertical reciprocation conveyors grew strong enough to become part of a product section of the industry trade association.

To my way of thinking, an editor who hasn’t found a cause in his or her industry just isn’t looking hard enough.