Truck News embraces digital future
Your reading habits are changing, and we are evolving to meet your needs.
The January issue of Truck News will mark the final print edition, 40 years after the paper’s founding. As we evolve for a digital era, the news of Canada’s trucking industry will now live online – at a completely revamped Trucknews.com.
The change has been made in response to market research on emerging reader needs and readership preferences – namely, annual research conducted on behalf of Newcom, and also the findings of a landmark study recently conducted by Magazines Canada, Canada’s national magazine association.
Two major findings shaped our decision: The Mags Canada study confirmed what our own studies and circulation data have been telling us for years. Decision makers in our industry – people who have purchasing authority and are primarily 45 years of age and older – remain committed to print (according to this research). But they prefer to consume certain types of information, namely industry news, through our digital products. This hardly comes as a surprise. The web offers the immediacy readers have come to expect.
Truck News was among the first to recognize this potential trend, and was among the very first North American industry publications to launch a website, in 1998. The launch of Trucknews.com changed how we delivered content to our readers, as we adopted an online-first approach to reporting on industry news.
The second major finding we are responding to is that the upcoming generation of industry decision makers – those under 45 years of age – prefer to receive their information through our digital products.
Going forward, Newcom’s English language trucking outlets will be streamlined, to offer readers the best of both worlds. Today’s Trucking will be the English language print magazine, containing the same feature-rich content readers have come to expect, as well as some new voices that will carry over from the print edition of Truck News.
Trucknews.com, produced by the editors of Today’s Trucking, and its e-newsletters, will serve as the online source for Canadian trucking news. An important point to make is that the entire editorial team is remaining intact and will deliver content through a completely redesigned website, that will offer the editorial team more tools with which to deliver online material in a much more dynamic manner. We’re genuinely excited about the new website, which will launch early in 2020.
The popular Careers section listing job opportunities for company drivers and owner-operators will continue. It will be made available in all issues of Today’s Trucking, starting with its February issue. The Marketplace section listing available equipment for sale will also continue and be made available in all issues of Today’s Trucking.
To summarize, the decision to end the Truck News print edition was based on two key inescapable conclusions: To meet the needs of our core audience, we must remain committed to strong print products. And to meet the needs of younger decision-makers – the core audience of our future – we must grow and enrich our existing digital products.
Next month, we will offer more on what to expect in our redesigned website.
For now, make sure you don’t miss a beat, by subscribing to our free e-newsletters. Just click the Subscribe button on the top right-hand section at Trucknews.com.
Have your say
This is a moderated forum. Comments will no longer be published unless they are accompanied by a first and last name and a verifiable email address. (Today's Trucking will not publish or share the email address.) Profane language and content deemed to be libelous, racist, or threatening in nature will not be published under any circumstances.
Obviously you have given no thought whatsoever to drivers who read Truck News while they are on the road, perhaps with no internet connection available in their truck,or sitting in the U.S. and not willing to pay the roaming fees. Perhaps you haven’t noticed but we don’t sit in an office wirh a computer in front of us. I have been reading Truck News since Brian Light first started publishing it. Won’t be able to read it anymore. Sad to see you abandon the people who need your newspaper the most.
Sad to see you go , always looked forward to reading mother load every month and now the younger generation makes the decisions for you . All I can say is you will have a lot of p o driver’s bc’s of this decision.
What a poor excuse you have to say that the Paper edition will cease to be published. Just give your Corporate “HEAD” a shake and think about who uses your Publication when it’s not in PRINT!! Your Advertisers will drop with the Lack of an Audience…. Your Audience has dropped over the years as it is, as a Publication in print, do you think your Advertisers will stay with a corporation that thinks the readers will continue to stay with Truck News?? Very unlikely…. as an example Motor Truck!!
Your readers will find another publication and they will flourish like Truck News has said in the past, the Landscape of drivers are a changing, and so will Truck News… It’s been nice knowing you…. Think about what is about to happen to an O.T.A. supporter who finds there is a Publication with very low Readership…
Congrats to Truck News and the decision makers. You have been a staple of my morning read, every morning. I’m older but have adjusted and am able to read on line at no cost from wherever I am. You have been a great supporter of our industry and have a tremendous team of first class people. Many of whom I call friends. Thank you for all the positive you bring to our industry.
Not everyone wants to squint at their cellphone to read important industry news and not everyone has a laptop in their truck. I’m sure some people will ‘evolve’ but if they haven’t done it already, it probably isn’t going to happen now. You are going to lose a lot of your most important audience – the truckers. They read the entire magazine including the ads! Our office staff skims your online version and never look at the ads. This move only proves one thing – Truck News is run by hypocrites. You say you want to make it better for truckers and then you take away one of their perks – grabbing your magazine at the truck stop and reading it cover to cover as they wind down after a long day, or while they are waiting for their next load. Shame on all of you.
Sorry to see this happen as my husband DO NOT USE THE INTERNET AND ONLY READS IS BY MAGAZINE so he will not br reading it any more
Sad to see you only cater to the one client group
Disappointing to say the least, although I have a computer and spend time at it I rarely have time to work with anything but numbers. Reading online is not something I do.
I prefer to read print where I can sit comfortably and read.
Hopefully you will change your mind There are a lot of us that still want the print magazine. Not everybody has access to the internet or even have a computer available to them. Don’t shut out the older drivers and readers and just go digital.
Very poor decision to stop print editions . People in the outlands do not have e-mail access or decent cell phone coverage , and now will lose their one form of good monthly reading . Your advertisers will not be getting fair coverage for their dollar . Casting aside a major share of our road going industry – Extremely dissapointed.
I am P O to see the printed paper go as 76 yr old OTR still have my AZM license driver still driving Part Time & up in northern ONTARIO where there is no WiFi therefore no paper to read. And also what happens to the truck crossword a challenge for me every month to complete it
Looks like Truck News is going downhill like the rest of the trucking industry.
Jesse
I am the Chairman of the company that owns Truck News and I’m not a hypocrite and I resent your
comment. Many of the comments referred to move fro print to digital was all about cutting costs and yes, cost played a role in this decision. Would you and your fellow truckers
prefer us to continue losing
money? How long do you think that will go on. We also publish Today’s Trucking and it will continue to provide a print trucking magazine FREE
to all truckers.
Sorry to hear this decision. We read your magazine from cover to cover when it comes. Online is no good to us, unfortunately. Hope you will change your mind.
Hello everyone. Thank you for your comments. I wanted to chime in and stress that the writers you know, and the content that you like to see, will be appearing in printed editions of Today’s Trucking magazine going forward — and those will be available in truck stops as well. So you won’t actually be losing out on anything. If you prefer printed content, it will still be available to you. — John G. Smith, editorial director
Like many other have said, very disappointed with your decision. Guess I will no longer be reading Truck News.
While it’s true I do look at a lot of web sites and online stuff, it was nice to have print copies to read in the truck during my day.
I have every print edition in my collection since 1982 when I first found Truck News in a truck stop.
But like the trucking industry itself, I guess things have to change…..and not for the best.
I disagree with this change, as my Dad is 75 years old, has no computer. I pick up a copy each mouth so he can read, and keep up with the trucking industry, as he started driving trucks at the age of 16. I also know of other retired drivers that are in the same bout.
Stupid decision, and, I might add, an age discriminatory one!
I currently read Truck News cover to cover, including the ads.
I will not support nor read it in digital form.
Hi, I am truly disappointed ☹️ I would be willing to pay for a subscription as I looked forward to your articles each month. It’s not easy to read off your phone!!!
I don’t think this is fair to over the road drivers that read truck news on there off time when on the road for long periods of time. The phone is generally to small to be reading the whole paper. You forget that we are not home to read it and when home we got more important things to do like family things and truck service etc. Tell us the truth, you are stopping it because of the bottom line. Very Disappointing