Back in June 1979, two young guys in northern Wisconsin were looking for a way to sell a spare 2,000-gallon vacuum truck when they settled on an idea: Start a publication with classified ads for septic service contractors.

Fast-forward 40 years. This month kicks off the 41st year of Pumper — your magazine — which has reported on revolutionary changes in the wastewater industry.

It all started with Pete Lawonn, 27, who had a septic service truck he no longer needed, Bob Kendall, 24, a budding entrepreneur, and the late John DiVall, who owned Jay’s Waste Equipment in Wisconsin. Upon hearing about Lawonn’s truck for sale, DiVall suggested the wastewater industry needed a trade publication to buy and sell equipment. Lawonn and Kendall thought that was a good idea and soon launched COLE Publishing and the Midwest Pumper.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Pumper soon evolved from a small newspaper format into a magazine. As advertisers jumped on board and the subscription base grew, the publication added more and more editorial content. The staff grew, and then grew some more. Eventually COLE Publishing started a stable of successful trade publications serving the wastewater industry and expanded on the internet.

Today, Kendall remains the founder of COLE Publishing. Lawonn moved on to other ventures.

The evolution of technology in the publishing business has been and continues to be astonishing. One thing remains constant, though, and that’s the great business relationships we’ve forged, both with Pumper readers and the manufacturers who serve the industry.

ONE BIG FAMILY

“The thousands of hardworking pumpers are the backbone of the industry. We’ve met so many accomplished small-business owners over the years, and when pumpers get together (at an event like the WWETT Show), it’s just like one big family,” Kendall says. “And we’ve seen that they’re all pulling in the same direction, serving their customers with pride and constantly raising the standards in the wastewater industry.”

The vendors that supply this industry — building vacuum trucks, portable restrooms, the accessories that help our readers build successful businesses — are all about raising standards as well. Since the early days of Pumper, as the old trash pumps gave way to improved vacuum pumps, manufacturers have constantly sought out innovations to boost profitability for septic service contractors. Every step of the way they’ve focused on constant improvement and better efficiency, from the hose in the septic tank to septage treatment plants that give pumpers a variety of effective disposal options.

Pumper has offered a valuable way for service providers and equipment suppliers to find each other. But the magazine couldn’t have flourished for 40 years without the support of loyal advertisers.

“We can’t thank the industry players enough for their constant support of our editorial product. They’ve enabled us to tell the interesting stories of hundreds of great pumping contractors and do our part to encourage professional business practices,” Kendall says. “At the same time, we’re proud to showcase emerging technologies brought forward by our advertisers. The productivity advances made over the years are a huge, good-news story we will continue to tell.”

IN PRINT AND ONLINE

That technology revolution is as pronounced in publishing as it is in pumping. Kendall and Lawonn started Pumper as a rudimentary black-and-white newspaper and built it into a high-quality glossy trade publication featuring professional editorial content aimed squarely at helping the pumping community.

Pumper has been fully an online product as well for more than a decade, reaching a new generation of readers who want to access content instantly on their smartphones and tablet devices. Now in addition to the paper magazine that has a huge readership in contractors’ offices across North America, daily online dispatches augment the content Pumper readers know and love. You wait for that glossy magazine to arrive in your mailbox once a month, but you now get a daily dose of Pumper.

“While we stick to the tried-and-true magazine platform that our readers continue to tell us they enjoy, we’re always exploring new ways to serve an ever-evolving industry,” says Jeff Bruss, COLE Publishing president.

What will the next 40 years of Pumper look like? No one knows for sure. But if we have anything to say about it, there will be a few more generations of successful wastewater professionals and industry advances beyond our wildest imagination.