I've been collecting a paycheck for almost 45 years, starting when I was slicing roast beef and slinging fries at Arby's, through working at a small weekly newspaper, then on to a humongous daily paper, a brief stint working for the PGA Tour, and then finding my way back to the publishing side where I have covered the finishing and coating industry for the past 15 years.
So it feels a little giddy to be acting like a young kid as I celebrate the 5th anniversary of this publication, FinishingAndCoating.com. Who would have thunk it?
The August issue celebrates five years of posting daily articles on the industry, producing a weekly newsletter, and then jamming it all into a monthly digital magazine that lately has been hard to keep under 175 pages.
Never in a gazillion years did I think that what I started in 2020 would ever become what inishingAndCoating.com has become. I didn't take advertising for most of that first year as I dawlded away writing about shops and technology for the industry.
Do you all remember 2020? I have tried not to, but I set out on my own early in that year only to see the world close its doors with the pandemic. So much for a business plan, right? But it didn't matter to me much; I kept writing and published the first edition in August 2020, and I am still amazed it was as many pages as it was.
But here is a little secret: in the almost half-century that I've been working, the last five have been by far the most rewarding. Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed cutting my journalism teeth at the small weekly and was awestruck when I joined my city's largest daily newspaper. To boot, I was even able to cover my passion when I wrote sports for the paper, covering professional hockey and high school sports. Getting paid to go watch games? Give me a break, I was in La-La land to be sure.
And then working for the PGA Tour was a dream job, too. While the tournament I worked at was only one week out of the year, I enjoyed spending the other 51 weeks marketing the event. I even got to hang out with some golfers named Palmer, Nicklaus, Trevino, and Chi-Chi.
But the last five years have been a dream come true. First, I was able to be my boss and do things the way I wanted to do them, which I always believed was the right way to do things.
Along the way, over the past 60 months, I have been able to interview and write about some of the most incredible people I have ever met. The shop owners who allowed me to profile their operations have been fantastic to work with — well, except for two or three, and they know who they are — and telling their story to the industry has been pure joy.
More importantly, I truly believe that by telling their story, I may be able to help another shop that might need an answer or is struggling, and the wisdom of one owner helping another owner is always something I strive for when putting these articles together.
To be honest, more than anything, I am thankful for the suppliers who have supported me with their faith, and to the readers who visit FinishingAndCoating.com every day, who open and read the newsletter I send every week, and who peruse the monster editions that we have been putting out these past five years.
I can thank all of you enough, and I never take any of you for granted. Every day is a new chance to educate and inform, and that is my goal. Hopefully, you all feel the same way, and I have delivered on that.
Thank you for five years and counting.
Tim Pennington is Editor-in-Chief of Finishing and Coating, and has covered the industry since 2010. He has traveled extensively throughout North America visiting shops and production facilities, and meeting those who work in the industry. Tim began his career in the newspaper industry, then wound itself between the sports field with the PGA Tour and marketing and communications firms, and finally back into the publishing world in the finishing and coating sector. If you want to reach Tim, just go 
