Major news in the world of automation publishing!

The International Society of Automation (ISA) has acquired Automation.com, a media company currently owned by Minnesota-based Automation Resources, Inc.

Automation Resources, Inc. was founded by Alan Carty in March of 2000. The company originally launched www.automationtechies.com as a job board focused on automation careers. Based on positive feedback from advertising clients as well as site visitors, the website evolved into a full-featured online resource by publishing articles, news and much more. At the same time, the job board evolved into a full-service recruiting and contract staffing business.

ISA's 2015 Combined Offering!
• Access to 140,000 e-newsletter subscribers worldwide
• 6 times per year publication of InTech print magazine
• 4 times per year publication of PULSE digital magazine
• 4 times per year publication of InTech Plus, digital automation basics app
• 120,000 combined website visitors per month, and growing (InTech Online & Automation.com)
• Custom publishing opportunities include print, electronic, and more

Rick Zabel joined Automation Resources in June of 2000 and focused his efforts on managing and growing the website business, while Carty focused on the recruiting and contract staffing business. In 2004, the company purchased the www.Automation.com domain name and ported all content from www.automationtechies.com to Automation.com. The automation techies name and website is used for the recruiting and contract staffing business.

With the sole purpose of providing information to automation and controls professionals, Automation.com content and traffic continued to grow quickly.

Today, Automation.com is a leading online publisher of automation-related content, and attracts nearly 100,000 users per month. The website features 45 topic-specific portals, providing an efficient and organized way to present collections of articles, news, products, white papers and other resources.

In October 2009, ISA selected Automation.com as exclusive supplier and distributor of ISA’s electronic newsletters. As a result, Automation.com produces the now co-branded Automation Weekly and other topic-specific e-newsletters. Today these co-branded e-newsletters are distributed to Automation.com subscribers, ISA members and customers, and InTech subscribers, creating a combined distribution of more than 140,000 automation professionals worldwide. In addition, ISA also selected Automation.com to be their sales representative for InTech’s print, digital and online publications.

Rick Zabel MD of Automation.com

Under the acquisition agreement, ISA will own Automation.com, including its website, intellectual property and all associated products, trademarks and copyrights. ISA will incorporate a new wholly-owned subsidiary called Automation.com, and Rick Zabel will remain the Publisher and Managing Director. Automationtechies.com and the recruiting business built by Carty will remain part of Automation Resources, Inc.

“The recruiting side of our business, automationtechies.com, has really taken off in the last several years and we anticipate even more growth as the industry enters a period of unprecedented hiring and staffing challenges,” said Carty. “It makes sense to focus on the recruiting side of the business, and ISA will be uniquely positioned to leverage the successful model we’ve built with Automation.com.”

“The partnership that our organizations forged in 2009 has given us the opportunity to learn more about each of our strengths,” explained ISA CEO and Executive Director Patrick Gouhin. “Automation.com’s strength is in content delivery and offering exciting, effective advertising opportunities in digital channels. ISA’s strength has always been in generating world-renowned technical content, bringing the expertise of more than 30,000 members around the world to bear on the industry’s most pressing challenges and trends.”

“Our readers and marketing partners will benefit from our combined strengths,” added Automation.com Vice President and Publisher Rick Zabel. “We’ll be able to leverage ISA’s technical assets with Automation.com’s proven digital expertise to give the marketplace an unmatched, robust and integrated media offering.”

“Rick and his team have worked closely with our InTech advisory board for several years now, and we think this partnership holds great promise for InTech and the rest of ISA’s products and services,” said Susan Colwell, InTech magazine publisher. “Soon, we’ll be able to offer the supplier community unparalleled options for getting their brand in front of target audiences in all of our combined channels, both digital and print. Our readers will continue to benefit from the top-notch technical content that has always been ISA’s core mission.”

“We are excited to join two powerhouse teams in the world of automation and leverage each other’s strengths in the coming months and years,” said Gouhin. “This is great news for ISA’s members, customers, corporate partners and advertisers – and it is great news for the profession as a whole.”

• Read what Walt Boyes, one of the automation industries leading commentators, has to say: ISA changes the face of automation publishing