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There are many chants in soccer fandom. Songs that are belted out by a team’s supporting faithful to lift the players’ and crowds’ spirits, or, let’s be honest, tear down the opponent. Players of long-standing service to a single club, especially those whose development began as actual children in a team’s youth academy, are serenaded with a special chant: “one of our own.” It’s an acknowledgment that this individual’s representation on the team rises to another level since he or she has been with one club from the player’s earliest professional development to present day, with all the intervening years of growth and dedicated service wholly focused.

Plastics Technology’s former chief editor, Matt Naitove, will be inducted into the Plastics Hall of Fame this October at the K Show in Germany. Source: Plastics Technology

That continuous service by one individual to one organization is a rare thing in any walk of life, professional sports or ����ý, and it’s just one of the aspects of Matt Naitove’s career that makes it so singular and worthy of recognition. In Matt’s case, the recognition doesn’t come in a soccer chant but rather entrance into the Plastics Hall of Fame, following his most worthy nomination by my colleague, Jim Callari.

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Starting in July 1972 and continuing to today, albeit as a part-time contributor since July 2023, Matt’s five-plus decades in journalism have not only been dedicated to a single industry but they’ve all been at the same publication, Plastics Technology, including nearly three decades as its chief editor.

In those intervening five decades, it’s hard to fully grasp the ground-shifting changes Matt saw in publishing in general and trade publications in particular, let alone the technological advances he documented within plastics. Joining PT at the tail end of the first Nixon administration, newly minted with a B.A. in English Literature and an M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University, Matt grew along with the industry and what is today its longest running North American periodical, in continuous publication for 70 years and counting. Journalism is often called the first draft of history; for plastics, Matt is one of its longest serving curators and scribes.

In an odd bit of timing, my first day on the job at PT was at the 2013 K Show in Germany, meaning my first professional interactions with Matt came at our industry’s most important event. In Messe Düsseldorf’s halls, I’d often just catch fleeting glimpses of him racing from booth to booth or press conference to press conference. His haul of press kits and a legal pad for notes carried at his side within a well-worn attaché gifted to trade media at a long-since-held NPE. Held Wednesday to Wednesday, each of the K Show’s 17 halls would constitute a very healthy show of their own. All of them together over eight days represent a grueling marathon of reporting mettle. While most of us would tap out on the Sunday of the fair, Matt stayed for the duration, picking up brochures in the show’s waning hours if a booth representative could no longer be found.

In a nice bit of symmetry, it will be at K this October that Matt will be inducted into the Plastics Hall of Fame alongside 17 other industry servants. The 14 times Matt has attended the triennial behemoth of an event is eclipsed only by his 17 NPEs — another triennial colossus of a show.

My publication and our industry have been well and faithfully served by Matt who’ll always be “one of our own.” Congratulations to him and all the 2025 inductees!

Tony Deligio

Matt Naitove (right) pictured working at PT in 1973; he started at the publication in 1972.
Source: Plastics Technology