The Lincoln Electric Co. printed 100,000 copies of its inaugural issue, which features Jessi Combs striking a Rosie the Riveter pose on the front cover, and received more than 6,000 requests from people asking to subscribe to the free magazine.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Lincoln Electric Co. aspires to make welding sexy. The 120-year-old Cleveland manufacturer has just launched a 44-page quarterly magazine called "ARC" to spotlight celebrity welders like Jessi Combs, offer expert advice on cutting-edge welding tools and techniques, and showcase cool careers in a dwindling industry.
The idea is to entertain and engage readers, rather than sell them something, although "Lincoln Electric" appears prominently throughout the magazine.
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Jessi Combs flexes her biceps in a Rosie the Riveter pose on Lincoln Electric's ARC magazine. The company printed 100,000 copies of its inaugural issue, which features Jessi Combs striking a Rosie the Riveter pose on the front cover, and received more than 6,000 requests from people asking to subscribe.
Lincoln Electric, which declined to say how much it's investing in ARC, isn't charging for copies, because it's more interested in getting the magazine into the right hands than making money from it. With expert tips from Lincoln Electric's Application Engineering team on welding over rusty steel surfaces to advice for beginners on creating better MIG welds, ARC is reaching for a fairly broad audience.
It also goes beyond grease monkeys and hobbyists, highlighting Combs' barrier-breaking career as an automotive designer, competitive off-road racer and organizer of welding camps for like-minded women.
ARC also introduces readers to Tag Agoglia, a former millionaire who founded the First Response Team of America, a nonprofit that swoops into town after a natural disaster using heavy machinery to clear debris and help rescuers reach victims. All free of charge to the communities they help.
Jason Radcliffe, owner and founder of Cleveland's 44 Steel custom furniture designs, shows readers how to build an industrial-style end table with an octagonal top.
And a tablet edition with even more stories and photos is available in the Lincoln Electric Library App.
"We've tried to make ARC informative, but just as important, we've tried to make it entertaining by featuring articles and interviews that we think will appeal to the welding and metalworking audience," Editor in Chief John C. Bruening writes in the first issue. "Yes, ARC is about welding, but it's also about the topics we think welders will enjoy."
Craig Coffey, U.S. marketing communications manager for Lincoln Electric, said one of content marketing expert Joe Pulizzi's predictions for 2015-16 is that print is going to make a resurgence.
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Craig Coffey, manager of U.S. marketing communications for The Lincoln Electric Co. "Most people still buy our products from distributors," Coffey said. "So think about the way that works: You go to the counter, tell them what you want, and wait for it while they load your truck," he said.
While they're waiting, it turns out that people like picking up and flipping through ARC magazine, and maybe even taking a copy back to work with them. Which is perfectly OK by the company.
"We're losing welders at a unbelievable pace. They're just not making as many as we're losing," and young people aren't entering the field in large enough numbers to replace the generations who are retiring, Coffey said.
"The American Welding Society estimates that by 2020 there will be a shortage of 290,000 professionals, including inspectors, engineers and teachers," he said.
When he was growing up, "if you wanted to learn how to weld, the farthest you would have to go is into your garage and sit next to your Granddad -- we don't have that anymore.
"I'm worried that the U.S. is becoming a culture of people who don't like to build things. Instead, people graduate from school without ever having welded or made things," he said.
Coffey points out that John Deere has been publishing The Furrow magazine for close to 100 years. Coffey said Subaru does a great job of this, too, sending him a magazine called Drive, geared toward the lifestyle of the Subaru owner.
All of which prompted Lincoln Electric to decide it needed a magazine to salute welders and the culture of welding, Coffey said. And unlike its advertisements in trade publications or magazines like Popular Mechanics, ARC puts the Lincoln Electric name in front of those who are most likely to know and buy the company's welding products, protective helmets and accessories.
Lincoln Electric is already creating future issues, capitalizing on its longstanding relationships with Discovery Channel's reality TV show "Fast N' Loud," with Richard Ray Rawlings and Aaron Kaufmann from Gas Monkey Garage in Dallas.
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Joe Pulizzi, self-proclaimed "Godfather of Content Marketing," is a fan of Lincoln Electric's ARC magazine. Pulizzi is a fan of ARC magazine and what Lincoln Electric is trying to do.
"With so many less truly valuable pieces of mail going through the post, I think this is a great way for Lincoln to cut through the clutter and get their marketing in front of their buyers," he said.
"Second, the issue presents welding as a certain kind of lifestyle that the younger population would be interested in," he said. "Recruitment is a huge issue for Lincoln, and they present the concept as sexy and different with the content from the issue. The cover is spot on."
Despite the media industry's shift to digital, "print makes a statement," he said. "Just look at all the Vanity Fair sharing on social media around Caitlyn Jenner. They were all sharing a picture of a print magazine cover. For all the talk about digital and social, print still has legs and can make an impact.
"The key for Lincoln will be to produce this consistently, over time, to build a long-term relationship with their subscribers," Pulizzi said.