60 Years Young

August marks the 60th anniversary of Construction Equipment magazine, a milestone we celebrate with pride and wonder. Over the decades, we’ve published Rebuilding America, The Global Challenge, America’s Highways at the Crossroads, and now Running Green. We’ve won major editorial awards for 28 straight years.

As we consider the history and legacy of this great magazine, we also look forward with anticipation and excitement.

This year has not had a lot of positive in it, but two events last month brought some sparkle. Bobcat unveiled a slew of new machines, and Caterpillar revealed some field-follow news on its D7E, introduced just more than a year ago.

We were able to file stories on both of these products within days of our return from the events. The two Earthmoving Reports published in this issue were on our Web site weeks ago.

What excites us even more, though, is our coverage that will not be published — at least not with ink on paper.

• Larry Stewart’s Big Iron blog on user experiences with the D7E included audio bytes of their comments in their own words. Blog readers are commenting on Cat’s move to premium-price the new machine.
• Twitter: The web was abuzz in the days before and after Caterpillar’s event as word of the “hybrid” label surfaced.
• Mike Anderson’s online reports on Bobcat’s new skid steer, excavator and mini-excavator feature video he took of the machines in action.
• Anderson’s Big Iron blog captured the excitement of being interviewed by local Bismark television for his take on Bobcat and its products. A link connects to the clip as it aired the evening of the event.
• Our new weekly newsletter featured reports on both of these companies. Within the first 24 hours, more than 1,000 folks read one or both.

At Construction Equipment, we’re all about equipment — its purchasing, maintenance and disposal. Sixty years ago, we were publishing in black and white. Today, we’re publishing digitally. Different media, same great equipment coverage.