Having worked in technical publishing for over 25 years, in 2003 Roger Barber decided to establish his own company Roger Barber Publishing in order to identify and launch magazines into niche market sectors in the UK.

The first magazine, Grinding & Surface Finishing was launched in March 2003 and was the first journal in the UK solely covering production grinding and surface finishing.

The second, Engineering Subcontractor, followed in September 2004 after an advance issue was circulated at the MACH exhibition in April of that same year and was received extremely positively by prospective readers and advertisers alike.  

The success of these magazines is due to a number of factors, but the "hands on" approach and highly readable format is a winning combination.

Production executives in major aerospace and motor vehicle companies as well as small to medium subcontractors simply have not got time to spend their days on the internet unless they know exactly what they are looking for.

Grinding & Surface Finishing and Engineering Subcontractor are essential guides to new products and applications to help streamline production and become more competitive in an ever demanding global economy.

Very much a family company, Roger Barber Publishing is managed by Roger with the help of his wife Jackie (Accounts) and son John (Circulation). Production Manager Anna Rodrigues has a wealth of expertise in magazine layout and continues to be a major factor in the success of the titles.

As Roger explains: "Not being part of a larger publishing house puts us in a much better position to make decisions easily and to be more in control of the magazines on a daily basis. We've been buoyed by a healthy increase of advertising revenue year on year, which convincingly demonstrate the continuing momentum of our operations and the success of our business strategies. We're publishing more pages - and that also means our readers have more valuable information."