Today’s blog is a little bit different.
Rather than looking at a news story that affects international shipping or giving international shipping tips, I’m going to share a list of some of the top news resources for articles relating to international shipping.
This isn’t like Supply Chain Opz’ SCM Global 50, that listed Universal Cargo Management’s blog as one of the top supply chain blogs, where using data gathering and methodology determines the list of international shipping resources. Instead, these are some of the most likely websites you’ll see me use as sources for international shipping news blogs.
These international shipping news resources are some of the most common places I look to find stories about international shipping. Often, I’ll go to these resources trying to find articles on something I already know is happening in the international shipping industry. Sometimes, I’ll go to these resources and discover international shipping related stories that I never would have heard about despite working for a well-connected freight forwarder.
There are many more international shipping news resources I read and use as source material, but these are some of the top ones to check out.
Supply Chain Brain
http://www.supplychainbrain.com
Supply Chain Brain has a great website of international shipping articles.
What I like most about Supply Chain Brain’s site is that you can easily browse it by category. The site has 17 different Logistics/Freight categories including Air Cargo, Global Logistics, and Ocean Transportation.
If I don’t know what I’m going to blog about yet, Supply Chain Brain is one of the first places I go to brainstorm ideas and see the most recent articles they’ve posted on international shipping related topics.
Here’s a little bit of how Supply Chain Brain describes itself:
SupplyChainBrain is the world’s most comprehensive supply chain management information resource. In addition to providing complete coverage of all fundamental supply chain principles, SupplyChainBrain identifies emerging trends, strategies and best practices, forward-thinking ideas, cutting-edge solutions and the latest innovations – and continues to write and report on these as they evolve and mature.
Reuters
If you read this blog regularly, then you see me quote articles from Reuters frequently.
As you’ll find with a number of news resources on this list, Reuters is not all about logistics or international shipping. What Reuters does offer is international news. It’s not surprising that international news often affects international business.
If you’re strictly interested in international shipping articles and news, keep coming here. I’ll sort through Reuters and similar news sources for stories that impact international shipping. But Reuters is worth reading for their comprehensive, worldwide news coverage and a focus on news that affects business.
Here’s a little bit from Reuters on how they describe themselves:
Thomson Reuters is the world’s largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.
The Wall Street Journal
Like Reuters, you’ll see me quote and cite stories from The Wall Street Journal very commonly.
I probably don’t have to tell you much about The Wall Street Journal. Their reputation should precede them… and way precede this blog. But it is worth mentioning that news affecting the world of international shipping is often covered in the Wall Street Journal.
Rather than describe them, I’ll go straight to what The Wall Street Journal has to say for itself:
Winner of 35 Pulitzer Prize Awards and considered the gold-standard of journalism, The Wall Street Journal is the industry leader delivering the most crucial news of the day, insightful opinion and fair-minded analysis. With expanded color capabilities, new adjacencies and section cover positioning, advertisers have more ways to connect with a powerful, influential and affluent target audience.
Marine Link
You don’t see me quoting and citing Marine Link as often as Routers or the Wall Street Journal, but it is still an excellent resource for international shipping news.
As a matter of fact, this is a news resource specifically relating to international shipping.
Marine Link is the website for reading not one, but two international shipping related magazines: Maritime Reporter and MarineNews.
I’ll often go here, see what’s happening, read stories on international shipping news, and see if there’s anything I want to share with Universal Cargo Management’s blog readers. If you’re a regular reader of our blog, this is probably an excellent site for you.
As I’ve now established the pattern, here’s a bit from Marine Link about itself:
The online home of Maritime Reporter and MarineNews magazines has been serving the maritime industry since 1999, with breaking business news and information on events, regulations, and developments. Every month more than 95,000 users log on for industry updates and company news, with MaritimeToday delivering daily email news service. RSS Feeds are available in all relevant industry categories, and news can be followed on Twitter at ShipNews.
Journal of Commerce
Ah, JOC, I have such mixed feelings about you.
The Journal of Commerce is as good as it gets for international shipping news. The problem is they have a somewhat steep subscription fee. If I’m not mistaken, it’s somewhere around $300 a year (I guess it’s not that steep if you break it down by the day).
Still, you can expect breaking news on international shipping stories, expert analyses, and great international shipping data from the JOC.
Because you can’t just freely read their content online, I have a tendency to rank JOC lower than they deserve. When it comes to an international shipping news resource, it doesn’t get better than JOC in terms of quality and up to the minute reporting. That’s impressive in an industry as volatile as international shipping.
Let’s let JOC give the DL on JOC:
JOC.com is the world’s most visited site serving the container shipping and international supply chain industry. Subscribers to joc.com gain access to the largest source of democratised market information in one easy to use portal. Real-time, breaking industry news, expert analysis, and a great depth of actionable data allow subscribers to stay on top of industry trends and make better business decisions.
American Shipper
http://www.americanshipper.com
American Shipper is a lot like JOC. Both provide excellent news coverage and data on the international shipping industry. Both have subscription fees.
American Shipper is a bit more accessible than the Journal of Commerce. A free registration gains you access to some of their content, but a premium membership is needed to access most of the of the articles you’d really want to read.
Still, there are many excellent articles you can read without the premium membership and the subscription fee is more than $100 less than JOC’s fee.
Just a little about American Shipper from American Shipper:
Howard Publications was founded by David A. Howard in 1951 and has published magazines covering international logistics and transportation since that time. American Shipper magazine was first published under that name in May 1974 and is designed to serve the information needs of shippers, carriers and third parties involved in international transportation and for executives managing international logistics and supply chains.
Los Angeles Times
Local newspapers are now showing up as international shipping news resources? Yup. I don’t apologize for that.
Local newspapers in cities with major ports are excellent news resources on international shipping related topics. Especially topics pertaining to the particular port at that city.
Few things impact international shippers faster than disruptions at the ports they import and export through.
If you keep reading this blog, you’ll see the L.A. Times get cited often in the near future as the union longshoremen who work the west coast ports are negotiating a new contract. You’ll likely see articles cited and quoted from other coast and port cities too.
The reason Los Angeles Times stands out from some of the other local cities’ papers in places with a port, is the size and prominence of the Los Angeles/Long Beach ports and how well the L.A. Times tend to cover what’s going on there.
The World and Business sections can also have some good stories that pertain to international shipping.
A quick “about us” from the L.A. Times:
The Los Angeles Times is the largest metropolitan daily newspaper in the country, with a daily readership of 1.5 million and 2.6 million on Sunday, more than 22 million unique latimes.com visitors monthly and a combined print and online local weekly audience of 4 million. The Pulitzer Prize-winning Times has been covering Southern California for more than 132 years.
The New York Times
There’s not much reason to get into why this one is on the list or about the paper as the former was covered in the L.A. Times section above and the latter can be pretty much wrapped up in general knowledge.
Still, I feel like I should write something here. I only put these two local papers in because the prominence of these papers and their corresponding ports cause them to be cited and quoted more often than other local papers.
It’s actually hard to call The New York Times a local paper as its distribution is so wide.
Similarly to these papers, I’ll often use papers that cover specific regional areas where there are ports or large amounts of international shipping activity happening. Seeing quotes from papers like the China Post is not uncommon in Universal Cargo Management’s blog.
But let’s not digress too much. Here’s a little bit on the New York Times from none other than the New York Times:
The goal of The New York Times is to cover the news as impartially as possible — “without fear or favor,” in the words of Adolph Ochs, our patriarch — and to treat readers, news sources, advertisers and others fairly and openly, and to be seen to be doing so. The reputation of The Times rests upon such perceptions, and so do the professional reputations of its staff members.
Hopefully, you’ll find these international shipping news resources as useful as I do. But if you don’t want to sift through them for international shipping stories, you can always subscribe to this blog where we do that work for you.
Universal Cargo Management is actually a resource for all your international shipping needs. Let us help you with your imports and exports.
