Fairplay (magazine)
Fairplay, The International Shipping Weekly is a weekly news magazine devoted to the international merchant shipping industry. It was founded by Thomas Hope Robinson in 1883 and has been in continual publication ever since, adding an internet and email daily news service in 1996. The company began publishing directories in the 1960s, which led to a joint venture with Lloyd's Register in 2001, known as Lloyd's Register - Fairplay Ltd. Fairplay was acquired by IHS in 2008, and acquired Lloyd's Register share of the maritime data business in 2009. The division is now known as IHS Maritime.
It's believed[by whom?] Thomas Hope Robinson was a merchant seaman who turned his hand to publishing on coming ashore in the UK. In the first issue he wrote: "There is so little Fairplay in the world. If our own efforts succeed, we shall have taken the first steps towards promoting the habit of calling things by their right name and looking at them through uncoloured spectacles." This raison d'être has appeared in every subsequent issue of Fairplay magazine, an archive of which is available to view at the company headquarters.
The organisation is based in Coulsdon, UK and has offices in America, Singapore, Sweden and a network of correspondents worldwide.
