The more things change…

Jan. 16, 2012
Thirty years ago this month, when I began working at Oil & Gas Journal, I already knew it was widely read and respected. But only in those early weeks did I begin to understand why.

Thirty years ago this month, when I began working at Oil & Gas Journal, I already knew it was widely read and respected. But only in those early weeks did I begin to understand why.

The structure of the magazine that has helped make OGJ so successful combines a regular source for operating-industry news with a collection of technical articles in specific OGJ segments: exploration and development, drilling and production, pipelines, and processing (refining and gas processing) and petrochemicals. And complementing both sections are the industry statistics many subscribers find invaluable.

All sections reflect the breadth of coverage that sets OGJ apart from any oil and gas magazine in the world. While much has changed at Oil & Gas Journal in 30 years, that vision and the editorial principles that inform it remain.

Criteria; rationale

Technology has of course changed how OGJ editors do their jobs just as it has changed everything else everywhere.

OGJ's editorial staff is much smaller in 2012 than in 1982. Technology has both caused that reduction and provided the means by which today's editors continue to produce the magazine and maintain its high quality.

Although still a weekly publication, OGJ now prints only once a month, gathering into that print issue the technical articles it used to spread over four or five issues per month. The change in printing frequency was a recognition of changes in how OGJ's readers want their information.

How we packaged that information, especially the technical articles, has also changed over the last 30 years. Currently, we arrange them to reflect the industry's value chain, upstream through midstream (a term that didn't exist in 1982) to downstream.

Not everything has changed, however.

OGJ technical editors receive, solicit, and review dozens of manuscripts a year, rejecting many. Criteria for selecting outside-authored articles are the same now as in 1982.

Last year, to help prospective authors prepare for submission, OGJ began printing a small notice in each monthly issue reminding readers not only that we welcome submissions from outside authors but also that an OGJ Author Guide is available to guide prospective contributors (www.ogj.com/submit-article.html).

The primary purpose of this guide—now and when it was first compiled more than 25 years ago—is to clarify which subjects and treatments are acceptable and which are not. Following is perhaps the core of the current four-page document:

"OGJ editors evaluate a submitted manuscript based on:

"1. Audience. The manuscript should primarily target engineers, engineering managers, scientists, planners, or analysts who are employed in operating oil and gas companies and assumed to be broadly familiar with the petroleum industry.

"2. Motive. The manuscript should provide engineer, technical specialist readers with useful information or data, analyses, instructions, tools, calculations, comparisons, or solutions for running and maintaining oil and gas operations or for designing processes, plants, and projects.

"3. Content and context. Manuscripts presenting products or services, including computer programs, simulations, etc., must include the contexts of actual operations with technical specifics and detailed results."

The italics, added above, make a point: Oil & Gas Journal is an operations magazine, covering oil and gas operations and operating companies, what their people are doing in operations, and what technologies and tools have helped them and how. Its pages are not intended to publicize any service or supply company or any product.

110 years

Despite changes wrought by technologies and markets, commitment to its operations readership is perhaps the single most common element of Oil & Gas Journal's coverage not only over this editor's 30 years but also over OGJ's nearly 110 years of publication.

Were I to return 30 years hence, its editorial coverage would still reflect that vision.

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