The power of the pen: what trade publications can do

This month’s leader is not really about moving and storage. It’s about trade publishing, political destiny – and the unexpected places in which a future Prime Minister might begin his career.

Before websites, email newsletters, social media and digital marketing, your humble editor ran a traditional, business-to-business, publishing house, producing specialist magazines for the container shipping and chemical logistics industries. Everything depended on print, post, telephone calls and face-to-face meetings. Each year, we recruited bright young journalists, often English graduates fresh from university, and taught them the mysteries of tank containers, rail tanks, IBCs and bulk-liquid transport.

At the end of 1991, one such graduate arrived from Cambridge University. His name was Andy Burnham.

Andy was bright, conscientious and easy to work with. He took the job seriously, worked hard and got on well with everyone in the company. He began as a staff writer and, after his first year, was promoted to assistant editor. By the end of his second year, we were preparing to promote him again, this time to deputy editor.

Then he told us that the stepmother of one of his colleagues was an MP and was looking for a research assistant. The MP was Tessa Jowell, and Andy decided that Westminster offered an opportunity he could not turn down. So, in 1994, he left the world of tank containers and chemical logistics and began his political career.

A few years later, he became an MP himself. He subsequently entered government, serving in senior roles including Chief Secretary to the Treasury and Secretary of State for Health. Later, he left Westminster to become Mayor of Greater Manchester, building a national profile while remaining closely associated with the region he represented.

And now the story has reached its most remarkable chapter. By the time this magazine is published, the former trade magazine staff writer and assistant editor will have entered 10 Downing Street as Prime Minister.

There is, perhaps, a serious point behind this slightly self-indulgent trip down memory lane. Trade magazines are sometimes regarded as occupying a small and rather specialised corner of journalism. Yet they teach people to understand industries and the people who work within them, ask sensible questions, meet deadlines, explain complicated subjects clearly and work constructively with colleagues and contributors.

Those are not bad skills for anyone entering public life.

So, while this month’s editorial may not really be about moving and storage, it does demonstrate the wider importance of specialist publishing. Somewhere in Britain today, a young reporter may be writing about removals vans, warehouse systems or self-storage containers while quietly preparing for an entirely different future.

Which only goes to show how important trade publications may be to the future of this country.

Patrick Hicks, Editor.

Please share your thoughts and comments with us: patrick@moversandstorersmagazine.com