The Journal of Commerce
Encyclopedia
The Journal of Commerce is a weekly magazine published in the United States that focuses on trade topics. First published in 1827, the Journal has a circulation of approximately 15,000. It provides editorial content to manage day-to-day international logistics and shipping need, covering the areas of cargo
and freight transportation, export
and import
, global transport logistics and trade
, international supply chain
management and U.S. custom regulations.
and Samuel Morse decided that New York needed another newspaper. The Journal of Commerce operated two deepwater schooners to intercept incoming vessels and get stories ahead of the competition. Following Morse's invention of the telegraph, the JoC was a founding member of the Associated Press
, now the world's largest news-gathering organization.
Publications in the 19th century took positions on political issues and were rarely concerned with being impartial. The JoC weighed in on the biggest issue of the day — slavery
. Gerard Hallock
and David Hale, partners in the JoC, were fervent abolitionists, but also decried the tactics of the war wing of the Republican Party
.
After the American Civil War
broke out in 1861, the postmaster general
suspended the paper's mail privileges, effectively interrupting its publication, on grounds of "disloyalty."
Three years later, President Abraham Lincoln
ordered the JoC closed after it was among New York papers victimized by a bogus story quoting the president as calling for 400,000 more volunteers.
Following the Civil War, the paper was steered by two men, David Stone
, who had taken over from Hallock at the start of the Civil War, and William C. Prime
, a lawyer who invested part of his fortune in the paper. The two converted the paper from a partnership into a corporation. Prime soon retired to become president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
. Though continuing as one of the lead investors, Prime left Stone in sole control. Stone devoted himself to the paper, writing most of the editorials and many of the page one stories.
But he neglected the paper's physical plant, allowing its technology to become outdated. Type was still set by hand in an era when most papers had switched over to linotype machine
s. The paper lost ground to its competitors, including the Daily Commercial Bulletin, founded in 1865 and owned by William Dodsworth, a friend of Stone's. But unlike his friend, Dodsworth believed it was more important to invest earnings in plant and equipment than to pay it out to investors.
In 1893 Prime and Stone agreed to sell the JoC to Dodsworth and merge it with the Commercial Bulletin. Though Dodsworth was the acquirer, he retained the JoCs name. The new paper became The Journal of Commerce and Commercial Bulletin, a name that was to be maintained through the 1990s.
The merged paper benefited enormously from the Commercials new presses and linotype machines, each of which could replace three or four men setting type by hand, one letter at a time. The papers also had complementary advertising support. The Commercial drew advertising from the grocery and provisions business, from insurance and banking. The JoC's coverage focused on shipping and chemicals, textiles and insurance.
When Dodsworth took over, he immediately laid off most members of both staffs. He didn't want writers who couldn't write on the newfangled typewriting machines or compositors who couldn't run linotypes.
. He teamed up with Carter Glass
, the Virginia senator, to write the Federal Reserve Act
. Much of the work was done in the offices of the JoC.
Throughout its history, the JoC maintained a different perspective on the news. Coverage of major events, such as the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 and the U.S. entry into World War I, emphasized the effect on business. During World War II, the JoC reprinted and indexed the wartime regulations that controlled production and supplies.
The JoC's profits boomed during World War I with a sharp increase in advertising and circulation related to the wartime industrial expansion. The growth continued into the early 1920s. Then in 1921, the Dodsworths sold the paper to William C. Reick, who acquired it with money put up by Charles A. Stoneham
, the wealthy owner of racehorses and the New York Giants
. After Reick died in 1924, Stoneham appointed a new front man, Raphael Govin, who pushed the JoC into more sports coverage.
Willis, who had become editor-in-chief of the JoC in 1919, watched with alarm as the paper's profits began to dwindle, when everyone else in the Roaring Twenties was making money. After Govin died and the JoC appeared to be on the verge of extinction, the paper was purchased in 1927 by the three Ridder brothers: Bernard H., Joseph E. and Victor F. They were the sons of Herman Ridder, the publisher of the German-language Staats Zeitung, the New York Herald
and the Long Island Press
.
The outbreak of World War II dramatically affected financial and commodity markets. The Ridder brothers soon built a newspaper empire of their own. They sold the JoC's AP franchise, which was a valuable asset in a day when access to the AP wires was restricted to franchise-holders. This enabled them to buy the St. Paul Pioneer Press-Dispatch. Bernard H. Ridder became publisher of the Pioneer Press-Dispatch, turning the JoC presidency over to Joseph E. Ridder.
In the postwar years, the JoC also earned a reputation as a prime source of international trade news. In 1973 the paper scooped the world on perhaps the most significant economic development of the last 30 years. Six days ahead of any other newspaper, the JoC reported that Arab nations were going to embargo oil shipments to the U.S.
On Saturday, October 20, 1973, as the Yom Kippur War
raged, the world learned that Arab nations would be suspending the supply of oil to the United States. The Journal of Commerce had the story of the notorious Arab oil embargo
more than a week earlier. "It was a story that impacted the entire world," said Harold Gold, who was editor of the JoC at the time. Few thought the Arab nations would use oil as a weapon against the U.S. in response to its military support for Israel
, which included a $2.2 billion military aid package. There had been threats, and an attempted embargo in 1967 that failed, so most dismissed the idea that it would ever happen.
In the later part of the 20th century, the JoC intensified its coverage of shipping, earning its nickname as the Bible of the maritime industry. Shipping was transformed forever by the introduction by Malcom McLean
in 1956 of the container ship
. Containerized shipping
made traditional breakbulk
ports obsolete and provided the means for Asia's export boom, which changed the world's economic map. The JoC reported in detail on these and other developments in transportation and logistics.
The JoC never missed a day of publication, even on the day in February 1993, when terrorists detonated a bomb in the garage under the World Trade Center
, killing six people. The paper's New York staff managed to find its way down the darkened, smoke-filled fire-escape stairs of the tower to safety below. The staff at the Phillipsburg, New Jersey
printing plant put the paper out that day.
The shipping industry, which had flourished through the 1960s and 1970s, began a period of consolidation in the mid-1990s because of plunging freight rates. Separate shipping companies that had run multiple ads in the paper merged and eliminated competing routes. With the rapid growth of the Internet in the 1990s, many shipping companies began to switch their ship schedules onto their Web sites, where shippers around the world could access them.
Knight-Ridder decided to get out of business information altogether to focus on its daily metropolitan newspapers. In 1995, it sold the JoC to The Economist Group
of London, publishers of the widely respected, The Economist
. Under The Economist Group the JoC tightened its focus to cover international trade logistics. In 1999, the broadsheet
newspaper was converted to a tabloid newspaper format.
In 2001, The Economist sold the JoC to Commonwealth Business Media, the New Jersey-based publisher of Pacific Shipper, Canadian Sailings, and a number of railroad and trucking directories. The new owners had long-standing connections with the transportation industry, having previously owned Traffic World, another magazine acquired with its purchase of the JoC Group.
In 2006, United Business Media
acquired Commonwealth Business Media, from its owners: RFE Investment Partners, Bariston Partners, The Economist Group, ABRY Partners
and Commonwealth's management. In 2008, United Business Media reorganized Commonwealth Business Media into two separate market-focused businesses. The Journal of Commerce became a part of the UBM Global Trade
group, focusing on serving professional communities engaged in commercial sea, rail and road transportation and logistics worldwide.
Effective March 2, 2009, Traffic World magazine and The Journal of Commerce merged into one industry-leading publication under the flagship Journal of Commerce banner. The JoC introduced a redesigned, comprehensive editorial product that utilizes data from PIERS: The Port Import/Export Reporting Service
to enhance news stories, offer a variety of Web tools that will complement its move to a digital environment with real-time focus, provide more analysis and market-oriented content.
The combined publication integrates the trucking, rail transport, express and domestic-focused logistics coverage of Traffic World with the international, U.S. Customs, container shipping, intermodal and breakbulk focus of The Journal of Commerce titles. The new publication is led by Paul Page, Editorial Director, and Joe Bonney, Executive Editor.
Cargo
Cargo is goods or produce transported, generally for commercial gain, by ship, aircraft, train, van or truck. In modern times, containers are used in most intermodal long-haul cargo transport.-Marine:...
and freight transportation, export
Export
The term export is derived from the conceptual meaning as to ship the goods and services out of the port of a country. The seller of such goods and services is referred to as an "exporter" who is based in the country of export whereas the overseas based buyer is referred to as an "importer"...
and import
Import
The term import is derived from the conceptual meaning as to bring in the goods and services into the port of a country. The buyer of such goods and services is referred to an "importer" who is based in the country of import whereas the overseas based seller is referred to as an "exporter". Thus...
, global transport logistics and trade
Trade
Trade is the transfer of ownership of goods and services from one person or entity to another. Trade is sometimes loosely called commerce or financial transaction or barter. A network that allows trade is called a market. The original form of trade was barter, the direct exchange of goods and...
, international supply chain
Supply chain
A supply chain is a system of organizations, people, technology, activities, information and resources involved in moving a product or service from supplier to customer. Supply chain activities transform natural resources, raw materials and components into a finished product that is delivered to...
management and U.S. custom regulations.
1800s
In 1827 Arthur TappanArthur Tappan
Arthur Tappan was an American abolitionist. He was the brother of Senator Benjamin Tappan, and abolitionist Lewis Tappan.-Biography:...
and Samuel Morse decided that New York needed another newspaper. The Journal of Commerce operated two deepwater schooners to intercept incoming vessels and get stories ahead of the competition. Following Morse's invention of the telegraph, the JoC was a founding member of the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
, now the world's largest news-gathering organization.
Publications in the 19th century took positions on political issues and were rarely concerned with being impartial. The JoC weighed in on the biggest issue of the day — slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
. Gerard Hallock
Gerard Hallock
Gerard "Buzz" Hallock III was an American ice hockey player who competed in the 1932 Winter Olympics.He died in Essex, Connecticut....
and David Hale, partners in the JoC, were fervent abolitionists, but also decried the tactics of the war wing of the Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
.
After the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
broke out in 1861, the postmaster general
United States Postmaster General
The United States Postmaster General is the Chief Executive Officer of the United States Postal Service. The office, in one form or another, is older than both the United States Constitution and the United States Declaration of Independence...
suspended the paper's mail privileges, effectively interrupting its publication, on grounds of "disloyalty."
Three years later, President Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
ordered the JoC closed after it was among New York papers victimized by a bogus story quoting the president as calling for 400,000 more volunteers.
Following the Civil War, the paper was steered by two men, David Stone
David Stone
David Stone was the 15th Governor of the U.S. state of North Carolina from 1808 to 1810. Both before and after his term as governor, he served as a U.S. senator, between 1801 and 1807 and between 1813 and 1814.-Biography:...
, who had taken over from Hallock at the start of the Civil War, and William C. Prime
William Cowper Prime
William Cowper Prime was an American journalist, art historian, numismatist, and travel writer, younger brother of S. I. Prime and E. D. G. Prime, born at Cambridge, New York. William Prime graduated Princeton in 1843 and delivered a poem at commencement. He was admitted to the New York Bar in...
, a lawyer who invested part of his fortune in the paper. The two converted the paper from a partnership into a corporation. Prime soon retired to become president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
. Though continuing as one of the lead investors, Prime left Stone in sole control. Stone devoted himself to the paper, writing most of the editorials and many of the page one stories.
But he neglected the paper's physical plant, allowing its technology to become outdated. Type was still set by hand in an era when most papers had switched over to linotype machine
Linotype machine
The Linotype typesetting machine is a "line casting" machine used in printing. The name of the machine comes from the fact that it produces an entire line of metal type at once, hence a line-o'-type, a significant improvement over manual typesetting....
s. The paper lost ground to its competitors, including the Daily Commercial Bulletin, founded in 1865 and owned by William Dodsworth, a friend of Stone's. But unlike his friend, Dodsworth believed it was more important to invest earnings in plant and equipment than to pay it out to investors.
In 1893 Prime and Stone agreed to sell the JoC to Dodsworth and merge it with the Commercial Bulletin. Though Dodsworth was the acquirer, he retained the JoCs name. The new paper became The Journal of Commerce and Commercial Bulletin, a name that was to be maintained through the 1990s.
The merged paper benefited enormously from the Commercials new presses and linotype machines, each of which could replace three or four men setting type by hand, one letter at a time. The papers also had complementary advertising support. The Commercial drew advertising from the grocery and provisions business, from insurance and banking. The JoC's coverage focused on shipping and chemicals, textiles and insurance.
When Dodsworth took over, he immediately laid off most members of both staffs. He didn't want writers who couldn't write on the newfangled typewriting machines or compositors who couldn't run linotypes.
1900s
After the 1907 panic, a young editor at The Journal of Commerce, H. Parker Willis, became a leader in the drive to establish a Central BankCentral bank
A central bank, reserve bank, or monetary authority is a public institution that usually issues the currency, regulates the money supply, and controls the interest rates in a country. Central banks often also oversee the commercial banking system of their respective countries...
. He teamed up with Carter Glass
Carter Glass
Carter Glass was a newspaper publisher and politician from Lynchburg, Virginia. He served many years in Congress as a member of the Democratic Party. As House co-sponsor, he played a central role in the development of the 1913 Glass-Owen Act that created the Federal Reserve System. Glass...
, the Virginia senator, to write the Federal Reserve Act
Federal Reserve Act
The Federal Reserve Act is an Act of Congress that created and set up the Federal Reserve System, the central banking system of the United States of America, and granted it the legal authority to issue Federal Reserve Notes and Federal Reserve Bank Notes as legal tender...
. Much of the work was done in the offices of the JoC.
Throughout its history, the JoC maintained a different perspective on the news. Coverage of major events, such as the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 and the U.S. entry into World War I, emphasized the effect on business. During World War II, the JoC reprinted and indexed the wartime regulations that controlled production and supplies.
The JoC's profits boomed during World War I with a sharp increase in advertising and circulation related to the wartime industrial expansion. The growth continued into the early 1920s. Then in 1921, the Dodsworths sold the paper to William C. Reick, who acquired it with money put up by Charles A. Stoneham
Charles Stoneham
Charles A. Stoneham was the owner of the New York Giants baseball team, New York Giants soccer team, the center of numerous corruption scandals and the instigator of the "Soccer Wars" which destroyed the American Soccer League.-Business ventures:Stoneham began his career as a board boy, updating...
, the wealthy owner of racehorses and the New York Giants
San Francisco Giants
The San Francisco Giants are a Major League Baseball team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the National League West Division....
. After Reick died in 1924, Stoneham appointed a new front man, Raphael Govin, who pushed the JoC into more sports coverage.
Willis, who had become editor-in-chief of the JoC in 1919, watched with alarm as the paper's profits began to dwindle, when everyone else in the Roaring Twenties was making money. After Govin died and the JoC appeared to be on the verge of extinction, the paper was purchased in 1927 by the three Ridder brothers: Bernard H., Joseph E. and Victor F. They were the sons of Herman Ridder, the publisher of the German-language Staats Zeitung, the New York Herald
New York Herald
The New York Herald was a large distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between May 6, 1835, and 1924.-History:The first issue of the paper was published by James Gordon Bennett, Sr., on May 6, 1835. By 1845 it was the most popular and profitable daily newspaper in the UnitedStates...
and the Long Island Press
Long Island Press
The Long Island Press is a free newsweekly serving Long Island with extensive coverage of arts and entertainment, sports, and alternative political viewpoints. The newspaper started in 2003 after its parent company, Morey Publishing, bought The Long Island Ear, which was a free bi-monthly...
.
The outbreak of World War II dramatically affected financial and commodity markets. The Ridder brothers soon built a newspaper empire of their own. They sold the JoC's AP franchise, which was a valuable asset in a day when access to the AP wires was restricted to franchise-holders. This enabled them to buy the St. Paul Pioneer Press-Dispatch. Bernard H. Ridder became publisher of the Pioneer Press-Dispatch, turning the JoC presidency over to Joseph E. Ridder.
In the postwar years, the JoC also earned a reputation as a prime source of international trade news. In 1973 the paper scooped the world on perhaps the most significant economic development of the last 30 years. Six days ahead of any other newspaper, the JoC reported that Arab nations were going to embargo oil shipments to the U.S.
On Saturday, October 20, 1973, as the Yom Kippur War
Yom Kippur War
The Yom Kippur War, Ramadan War or October War , also known as the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and the Fourth Arab-Israeli War, was fought from October 6 to 25, 1973, between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria...
raged, the world learned that Arab nations would be suspending the supply of oil to the United States. The Journal of Commerce had the story of the notorious Arab oil embargo
1973 oil crisis
The 1973 oil crisis started in October 1973, when the members of Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries or the OAPEC proclaimed an oil embargo. This was "in response to the U.S. decision to re-supply the Israeli military" during the Yom Kippur war. It lasted until March 1974. With the...
more than a week earlier. "It was a story that impacted the entire world," said Harold Gold, who was editor of the JoC at the time. Few thought the Arab nations would use oil as a weapon against the U.S. in response to its military support for Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, which included a $2.2 billion military aid package. There had been threats, and an attempted embargo in 1967 that failed, so most dismissed the idea that it would ever happen.
In the later part of the 20th century, the JoC intensified its coverage of shipping, earning its nickname as the Bible of the maritime industry. Shipping was transformed forever by the introduction by Malcom McLean
Malcom McLean
Malcom Purcell McLean , born in Maxton, North Carolina, was an American entrepreneur, often called "the father of containerization"...
in 1956 of the container ship
Container ship
Container ships are cargo ships that carry all of their load in truck-size intermodal containers, in a technique called containerization. They form a common means of commercial intermodal freight transport.-History:...
. Containerized shipping
Containerization
Containerization is a system of freight transport based on a range of steel intermodal containers...
made traditional breakbulk
Break bulk cargo
In shipping, break bulk cargo or general cargo is a term that covers a great variety of goods that must be loaded individually, and not in intermodal containers nor in bulk as with oil or grain. Ships that carry this sort of cargo are often called general cargo ships...
ports obsolete and provided the means for Asia's export boom, which changed the world's economic map. The JoC reported in detail on these and other developments in transportation and logistics.
The JoC never missed a day of publication, even on the day in February 1993, when terrorists detonated a bomb in the garage under the World Trade Center
World Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
, killing six people. The paper's New York staff managed to find its way down the darkened, smoke-filled fire-escape stairs of the tower to safety below. The staff at the Phillipsburg, New Jersey
Phillipsburg, New Jersey
Phillipsburg, known locally as P'burg, is a town in Warren County, New Jersey, in the United States. As of 2010 United States Census, the town's population was 14,950....
printing plant put the paper out that day.
The shipping industry, which had flourished through the 1960s and 1970s, began a period of consolidation in the mid-1990s because of plunging freight rates. Separate shipping companies that had run multiple ads in the paper merged and eliminated competing routes. With the rapid growth of the Internet in the 1990s, many shipping companies began to switch their ship schedules onto their Web sites, where shippers around the world could access them.
Knight-Ridder decided to get out of business information altogether to focus on its daily metropolitan newspapers. In 1995, it sold the JoC to The Economist Group
The Economist Group
The Economist Group is a leading source of analysis on international business and world affairs, delivering information through a range of formats, from newspaper and magazines to conferences and electronic services...
of London, publishers of the widely respected, The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
. Under The Economist Group the JoC tightened its focus to cover international trade logistics. In 1999, the broadsheet
Broadsheet
Broadsheet is the largest of the various newspaper formats and is characterized by long vertical pages . The term derives from types of popular prints usually just of a single sheet, sold on the streets and containing various types of material, from ballads to political satire. The first broadsheet...
newspaper was converted to a tabloid newspaper format.
2000s
It became increasingly apparent that a print newspaper with a worldwide readership faced a struggle in keeping its readers up-to-date on breaking news. By the time the newspaper was delivered, most readers had already gotten their news by fax, telephone or on the Internet. In 2000, the JoC converted the its daily print publication into a weekly magazine, JoC Week, which provided analysis of trade logistics. Breaking news was covered online at http://www.joc.com.In 2001, The Economist sold the JoC to Commonwealth Business Media, the New Jersey-based publisher of Pacific Shipper, Canadian Sailings, and a number of railroad and trucking directories. The new owners had long-standing connections with the transportation industry, having previously owned Traffic World, another magazine acquired with its purchase of the JoC Group.
In 2006, United Business Media
United Business Media
UBM plc is a magazine publisher, news distributor and events organiser providing business information services principally to the technology, healthcare, media, automotive and financial services industries...
acquired Commonwealth Business Media, from its owners: RFE Investment Partners, Bariston Partners, The Economist Group, ABRY Partners
ABRY Partners
ABRY Partners is a private equity firm headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts that focuses on investments in media. Since 1989, the firm has completed over $18.0 billion of leveraged transactions and other private equity and mezzanine investments, representing investments in more than 450 media...
and Commonwealth's management. In 2008, United Business Media reorganized Commonwealth Business Media into two separate market-focused businesses. The Journal of Commerce became a part of the UBM Global Trade
UBM Global Trade
UBM Global Trade is a leading information provider to the global trade, transportation and travel market with comprehensive proprietary data, news and analytical content. Its brands include The Journal of Commerce, PIERS: The Port Import/Export Reporting Service and a number of directory databases...
group, focusing on serving professional communities engaged in commercial sea, rail and road transportation and logistics worldwide.
Effective March 2, 2009, Traffic World magazine and The Journal of Commerce merged into one industry-leading publication under the flagship Journal of Commerce banner. The JoC introduced a redesigned, comprehensive editorial product that utilizes data from PIERS: The Port Import/Export Reporting Service
PIERS: The Port Import/Export Reporting Service
PIERS: The Port Import/Export Reporting Service is a brand of UBM Global Trade, headquartered in Newark, NJ with multiple offices throughout the United States, Asia, and Europe. UBM Global Trade is a division of United Business Media, headquartered in London with £889.2 million revenue in 2010...
to enhance news stories, offer a variety of Web tools that will complement its move to a digital environment with real-time focus, provide more analysis and market-oriented content.
The combined publication integrates the trucking, rail transport, express and domestic-focused logistics coverage of Traffic World with the international, U.S. Customs, container shipping, intermodal and breakbulk focus of The Journal of Commerce titles. The new publication is led by Paul Page, Editorial Director, and Joe Bonney, Executive Editor.
External links
- United Business Media Corporate site
- United Business Media Global Trade
- Breakbulk.com, news about the breakbulkBreak bulk cargoIn shipping, break bulk cargo or general cargo is a term that covers a great variety of goods that must be loaded individually, and not in intermodal containers nor in bulk as with oil or grain. Ships that carry this sort of cargo are often called general cargo ships...
and project-cargo industry - Joc Sailings, sailing schedules and regional news.