Endings and Beginnings

Copyright 2009, Traffic World, Inc.

Five thousand, three hundred fourteen issues. One hundred one years, 10 months and nine days.

No matter how you look at it, Traffic World has had a long, eventful and productive life as the leading weekly transportation and logistics news magazine in the United States.

Starting next week, Traffic World, founded in 1907, will be merged with The Journal of Commerce, founded in 1827. Although the Traffic World name will be retired, The Journal of Commerce will continue the mission defined by its founders - to doggedly cover "freight matters" and provide "the best service that human ingenuity and brains can accomplish."

In its new incarnation, The Journal of Commerce will expand to include Traffic World''s signature coverage of the rail and intermodal and trucking industries, as well as logistics, technology, and air and expedited cargo. The Journal of Commerce, of course, will continue to cover international maritime news and global trade - as it has for 182 years. It will be the broadest, most inclusive version of The Journal of Commerce since its days as a daily newspaper, providing forward-looking news and analysis to readers using a full array of print and online tools.

Traffic World and The Journal of Commerce have been linked since 1990, when Knight-Ridder acquired Traffic World and added it to The Journal of Commerce Group. Both publications were industry "bibles" - must-reading for executives whose businesses depended on the latest information on rail or truck freight rates or shipping line rates and changes at ports and terminals.

The publications had more than coverage in common - both shared an ability to identify new trends and quickly adapt to them. The Journal of Commerce caught the great wave of maritime commerce in the 19th Century - the age of the clipper ship - and rode it far into the future. In similar fashion, Traffic World was propelled by the growth of federal regulation and outrage against railroad market power abuses in the early 20th century.

Traffic World got its start thanks to the Hepburn Amendment to the Interstate Commerce Act of 1906. Sponsored by Rep. William Hepburn, R-Iowa, and backed by President Theodore Roosevelt, the amendment gave the Interstate Commerce Commission broad new powers, including the authority to set maximum rates and replace existing rates with "just and reasonable" charges.