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Story by Rich Donnell,
Editor-in-Chief

Are you aware that Timber Processing magazine has gone global? We haven’t publicized this development much, so it may have slipped by you. This issue, for example, is in the hands of more than 1,200 sawmill owners, managers and other lumber industry professionals outside of North America, in addition to the 12,000 or so in North America.

It’s a major step to make this move. In addition to adding to our print run, we also escalate our mailing expenses. So why do it? One reason is to provide more coverage of the international sawmill business and the technologies therein. Maybe something somebody is doing over there will help your sawmill business over here, and vice versa.

Of course, more coverage doesn’t pay for those additional publication costs. What does, is more advertisements in our magazine—advertisements from equipment companies based in North America who are expanding their services overseas, just as we are, and advertisements from off-shore equipment companies who want to continue to service their domestic markets as well as make inroads into North America.

For the first time in our magazine’s history, in the October issue, we featured a German sawmill on the cover. The article on Binderholz was written by one of our editors, David Abbott, who visited the sawmill in Kösching. David also visited two other sawmill operations and those articles will be appearing in future issues of Timber Processing. Also in the October issue, David wrote an article based on his visit to the Springer and Microtec facilities—those companies are significant Europe-based suppliers of sawmill machinery and scanning/optimization systems. In this current issue, you’ll notice a section on dry kilns as supplied by several off-shore based equipment firms.

As a result of this effort, at the Ligna machinery expo in Hannover, Germany next May, we’ll be exhibiting and promoting Timber Processing to our “new” readership “over there.” This international push will by no means cause our coverage of the domestic sawmill industry to lapse. During the current economic downturn, if you sit and wait for good news to knock on your door, you might turn into stone, if you haven’t already. There are no guarantees outside the door either, but the fresh air will do us good.