Seven short months ago, I accepted my position as assistant editor for Metal Casting Design & Purchasing Magazine and was introduced to the world of metalcasting.
 
I have my degree in journalism to thank, but I could not hide that I was coming from the field of cosmetics to one of molding, coring, designing, gating, melting and pouring. And, I was overwhelmed.
 
As it turns out, I have family ties to metalcasting. While the majority of my family work is in manufacturing, hands-on-type jobs, I was surprised to learn that my uncle is a metalcaster. So, as I prepared to dive in to a new field and culture, I knew I was well supported and had a tiny bit of background to work with.
 
During these seven months I have made every attempt to pay close attention and learn when opportunities are presented—visiting metalcasting facilities, doing research, taking a stab at feature articles and being the voice of our various social media outlets.
 
Most recently, I had the opportunity to re-design our digital and print newsletters and assist in fine tuning our new website. The old newsletters represented a copy and paste, regurgitation of the news and information already posted in various areas of our website. With the new designs, our staff wondered: “What do our readers want to see and what is interesting to include?”
 
Sure, we can tally website visitors, total clicked-on items and track visit lengths, but at the end of the day, those results are just numbers. And, the questions still exist. What do you, our readers, visitors and members want to see and read? What catches your interest? What do you think?

The new website represents many months of work, staring at computer screens, clicking on links and redirecting them. The newsletters follow suit, requiring representation of our new, comprehensive site in one tiny email. But our objective remains the same—we are the metalcasting trade publication committed to supporting the designers and buyers of castings with all of the news, information and stuff that interests you.