By Christina Lazenby, Publisher, Fire Door Journal
Fire door safety is far more than a subject for a trade publication. That is why our plans for Fire Door Journal (FDJ) go considerably further than simply producing a trade magazine.
Our ambition is to develop FDJ into an independent, trusted source of information and technical knowledge hub for everyone involved in the specification, manufacture, installation, inspection, maintenance and management of fire doors.
We want it to be informative, technically valuable and interactive. We want to ask questions as well as answer them, encourage professional discussion and give people throughout the industry an opportunity to share their knowledge and experiences.
And at the heart of those plans is our ambition for FDJ to become increasingly reader funded.
Why reader funded journalism matters
Trade publishing has traditionally relied heavily on advertising. Advertising will continue to have an important role in FDJ, allowing businesses to communicate with the people who specify, purchase, install and manage their products and services.
However, editorial and advertising perform very different functions.
Our aim is for subscriptions to support the journalism, research and technical content our readers receive. A reader funded model gives us greater editorial independence – allowing us to investigate the subjects that matter,
ask questions where necessary and publish information because it is valuable to our readers.
That independence is particularly important in a safety critical sector. Readers therefore need information they can trust.
Bringing technical expertise to the Journal
An important part of our future is the appointment of Bryony Matthews of ron Out as Technical Editor.
Bryony is a highly experienced and knowledgeable architectural ironmonger and fire door safety expert. Her practical understanding of the industry will add another dimension to the technical content we provide.
Bryony’s involvement will enable us to explore technical subjects in greater depth, while making complicated issues accessible and useful.
We don’t simply want to report that a standard or piece of legislation has changed. We want to explore what that change actually means in practice.
What should an installer know? What should an inspector be looking for? What does it mean for somebody maintaining a building? What are the common mistakes or misconceptions?
Good technical journalism should make complicated subjects easier to understand without oversimplifying them. That is something we intend to make a defining characteristic of FDJ.
Turning reading into professional development
Another exciting part of our plans is Continuing Professional Development (CPD).
We are exploring ways in which selected technical articles published in FDJ could help readers gain points or hours towards their CPD.
People working within fire safety operate in an environment where legislation, standards, guidance, products and expectations surrounding competence continue to evolve.
Learning cannot stop when somebody receives a qualification. Knowledge needs to be maintained and developed throughout a career.
Our vision is therefore to introduce carefully selected content that provides structured learning – technical articles that don’t simply give readers something interesting to read but actively help improve their professional knowledge.
We are looking at how readers could demonstrate that they have read and understood qualifying material and potentially gain recognised CPD points or hours as a result.
There is work to be done before we can announce exactly how this will operate, and it is important that anything carrying a CPD element has genuine educational value. But it is an area we are very keen to develop.
Keeping the industry informed
Alongside technical and educational material, FDJ will continue performing one of the fundamental roles of specialist journalism: keeping readers informed.
We’ll cover the latest industry news, legislation, regulations, standards, consultations, technical developments, training opportunities and changes affecting the fire door sector.
For busy professionals, the problem isn’t always that information isn’t available. Often, there is too much information spread across too many places.
Our job is to identify what matters, bring it together and, importantly, put it into context.
What has changed? Who does it affect? What does it mean in practice? What should you be doing differently?
Those are the questions we want our journalism to answer.
Rising to the Challenge
Although FDJ is developing, publishing certainly isn’t new territory for me. Publishing has changed enormously over the past 30 years of my personal experience. We’ve moved from an industry dominated by print into websites, digital editions, email, newsletters and social media.
But one thing hasn’t changed: good publishing is about understanding your audience.
The strongest trade publications become part of the industries they serve. They understand the companies and the people, recognise commercial pressures while retaining editorial judgement and understand that their responsibility is ultimately to their readership.
That is exactly what I want for FDJ.
Admittedly, becoming the publisher of FDJ has been particularly challenging. Fire door safety is an incredibly technical and complex sector, and with life safety at its heart, there is a responsibility to make sure that what we publish is relevant, accurate and genuinely useful. I am learning all the time and embracing that challenge, helped enormously by the knowledge and experience of our Technical Editor, Bryony Matthews, and our panel of industry experts. Having access to people who live and breathe fire door safety gives me the confidence to ask questions, learn from their expertise and ensure the Journal continues to develop in the right direction. I don’t believe a publisher needs to pretend to know everything – but they do need to surround themselves with people who have relevant demonstrable competence, listen to their readers and never stop learning.
Building the future together
The next chapter will be built around five principles: independence, technical credibility, education, current information and industry participation.
Reader funding will help us protect our editorial independence. Our contributors expertise will strengthen our technical content. Our CPD plans will aim to turn reading into meaningful professional development. Our news coverage will keep readers informed, while our questions and discussions will give the wider industry an opportunity to participate.
Ultimately, I don’t want the Journal to be something people simply receive. I want it to be something they use.
That is the future we are working towards, with our readers and the wider industry helping us to build it.
Christina Lazenby is Publisher of Fire Door Journal and has more than 30 years’ experience in B2B publishing and specialist industry publications.
