Alex Bachrach, publisher
When I started my career in publishing in 1988 (three days removed from a weekend of Grateful Dead concerts) I was hired by Tradelink Publishing to work on two magazines:Stone Worldand a recently launched publication calledTILEWorld. SinceStone Worldhad been established four years earlier and had by then built a name for itself in the international natural stone industry, my charge was to learn the tile industry, get to know its players and build the sales forTile Worldalmost from its inception. It was an exciting opportunity for a 23-year-old.
After being acquired by BNP Media in 1994, I was soon named publisher ofStone World, whileTile Worldwas moved into a different division, renamed, and was ultimately morphed into what is now our successful flooring publication,National Floor Trends. In 2003, when the long-time publicationTile & Decorative Surfacesstopped publishing, BNP Media decided to fill the void and launch a new tile publication the following year, simply and aptly titledTILE.
Flash forward to 2011, and now I have returned to my roots in publishing: stone and tile. I am still publisher ofStone Worldand our quarterly design publicationContemporary Stone & Tile Design(launched in 1995 to showcase the beauty and inspirational designs in tile and stone to the A&D community), and I am now your new publisher ofTILE Magazine.
Arpi Nalbandian continues her role as editor ofTILEand she will be joined by Michael Reis and Jennifer Adams, our Editor/Associate Publisher ofStone Worldand Editor ofContemporary Stone & Tile Design, respectively, to transform our editorial product into the most important news source for the tile industry. Together, we will makeTILEmore than an engaging read: it will be vital to your business if you are in the tile industry. We will ensure that all pages ofTILEare dedicated to inform and educate our readers, whether they are distributors, dealers, contractors, designers or manufacturers.
If you have ideas, please feel free to contact me at bachracha@bnpmedia.com or anyone on our staff and share them. If you work in the tile industry, this is your magazine and we want your input and involvement. If you didn’t meet Arpi, Jennifer or me at Total Solutions Plus this month, then we hope to see you soon at Surfaces, Coverings or any of the events in our industry (which I encourage you to attend).
The tile industry has evolved, just as the publishing industry has, and there are new opportunities and methods to market to tile industry professionals, including advertising online atwww.tilemagonline.comor in our daily eNewsletter, TalkFloor, and through engaging digital products such as Webinars, custom eNewsletters, social media platforms and many other products. Our goal is to help industry members connect and do business together. And once again, I feel like a 23-year-old, excited by the prospects of becoming a part of the tile industry again.
