In an industry where there are fewer farmers, there are also fewer publications

One of the underlying messages within the agri-food industry of the past 30 years has been “the pace of change”.
In the late 1990s, it was suggested that the changes occurring in the past three years had eclipsed those of the previous 30. That led to questions of what might happen in the coming three months, given such rapid evolution.

It was an exaggeration but the point was that nothing stays the same, and in agriculture, it can happen even faster than anticipated.

The latest sector in the industry to see rapid alterations is the ag media world. In the late 1990s, there were 17 national or provincial publications delivered to farmers in Ontario, either through membership in a farm organization, via subscription or as an advertising or newspaper supplement.

Appearances can be deceiving
Since the late 1990s, four of those have closed shop with Farmtario and Manure Manager entering the media landscape. But the health of many new and established titles is suspect. If they are linked to memberships with a farm organization, they can use those numbers to attract advertisers, supplementing the money generated from check-offs. Without that connection they’re finding it difficult to remain sustainable amid flagging ad revenues, increased production costs, declining page counts and staffing cuts. Together, they limit the ability to provide optimal, timely and relevant coverage of issues in the agri-food/agri-business industry.

Contrary to what many publishers and farm media executives seem to believe, producers are noticing the resulting void created by those effects.

The desire to maintain a standard of delivery and value of any publication is meeting a crushing migration.”

What’s changed in the past 25 years? The advent of the internet and widespread availability and enhancements of smartphone technology, which can offer commodity prices, weather forecasts and social media, and put them right in a producer’s hand. Even classified ads, for years a value-added staple in publications, have suffered the ease with which the internet and smartphones have transformed the buy-and-sell of various commodities within agri-business. In the past 10 years, survey companies like Readex Research affirmed print’s hold on the collective conscience of farm producers. Farmers love print and turning pages, the survey results would chime.

Today, those the same bells are ringing hollow as editors fight to fill pages, maintain skeleton crews of reporters, rely on freelance talent and manage against declining revenues, all while trying to find the economic sweet spot in the evolution of digital publishing. The desire to maintain a standard of delivery and value of any publication is meeting a crushing migration of change in the publishing sector. The days of filling inside front and back covers and double-page spreads at the centre of a magazine with full-colour ads from seed, chemical or equipment companies are fading faster than anticipated. As a result, private sector businesses are finding other ways to connect with their farm customers.

Confounding things further has been the rapid rise of “alternative sources” of information, namely podcasts and other forms of online talk shows previously found on radio. Their prevalence, popularity and their ease of access have challenged print’s ability to hold on to traditional audiences, without the medium adjusting many of its offerings. Yes, some publications have introduced digital components -videos and webinars. But they’re competing against must smaller interests which tend to be more flexible and capable of quicker adjustments.

Membership has its privileges
Building a publication’s foundation on its memberships has worked well for several magazine titles. Better Farming, Milk Producer and Ontario Grain Farmer are three ag publications that obtain part of their operating funds from check-offs or memberships with Ontario Federation of Agriculture, Dairy Farmers of Ontario and Grain Farmers of Ontario, respectively. Producers who are members of these organizations automatically receive the corresponding publication.

That’s important because of the attraction of subscriber numbers by advertisers. For the major players in agri-business, those numbers translate to “eyes on the page”, a key selling enticement. It was an elementary promotional point in the early days of digital advertising in the mid-2000s and equated to the potential for readers.

Many publications lacking member numbers operate with margins that teeter on a razor’s edge

Yet whether it’s print or digital, the bigger the subscriber numbers, the more attractive it is for advertisers and the more publications can charge for ads. Subscription lists of 20,000 or more translate to easier ad-purchasing decisions by the likes of John Deere, Syngenta, Lely, Climate FieldView. Other publications, such as Canadian Poultry and Manure Manager are known as “industry stand-alones”, where they have no major competitor within their particular sector, and revenues tend to reflect that.

Just like farming
In ag publishing parlance, a healthy 1:1 ratio of editorial pages (including front cover, contents and editor’s column) to advertising is the goal. That differs from some consumer magazines which frequently exceed that 50/50 level. In ag media, optimum percentages usually range from 30 to 35 per cent, or roughly 2:1 (although there are some that are considerably higher). This is where agriculture and farm media have their similarities beyond subject matter; like agriculture, many publications lacking membership numbers operate with margins that teeter on a razor’s edge. One year’s decline in revenues combined with higher production and printing costs can push a publication from the black side of the ledger into the red. As with farming it depends how long they’ve been operating close to the edge.

It’s this part of the advertising equation that’s also cost most of the mainstream media a role in offering limited coverage of farm issues. There was a time when daily newspapers in Ontario’s farming heartland -the Stratford Beacon Herald or the Woodstock Sentinel Review -published annual or semi-annual farming supplements to their readers. But the fight for ad revenues to justify the expense was a major deterrent. A lack of writers with the necessary expertise in agriculture, poor pay in return for the effort as well as the disconnect between consumers and the farm were three more sizeable impediments.

Conflicting messages
Overall, the devolution in ag publishing has been rather stunning, especially compared to the popularity of print exhibited in businesses like Chapters/Indigo or Coles. But that’s been the overwhelming effect of 1) the internet, 2) the sweeping adoption of smartphones, 3) the rise of social media and 4) the comfort level of farm readers to glean everything they need or want from sources other than print. Radio used to be known as the “immediate medium”, but that title has been eclipsed by digital news gathering and distribution. Announcements about commodity prices or an approaching weather front can be in the hands of producers in a matter of minutes, and no other medium offers that speed or adaptability.

Where does that leave farmers in the hunt for useful information? That depends on how much embedded advertising they’re willing to tolerate within the resources they rely on. They still want good authoritative information on how to improve their operations, but their willingness to sift through advertorial content is cellophane thin.

Two things that confound that search, with the first being a problem facing every sector in the workforce: succession. For the past 10 years, the well-known voices in the agri-business world have either retired or are hanging on as long as they can. The second factor, is the relatively low pay within the media world (not just ag media). In Canada, reporters, TV anchors and radio announcers -and their respective support staff -tend to be underpaid; it is the rule of working in “media”. That fact actually encourages the reliance on freelancers; media companies don’t have to pay salaries, benefits or pensions, and they can dictate rates better suited to their finances. For freelance writers, they can take the same story, adjust its content and sell it to multiple publications, with greater control over the content they generate -particularly Copyright of their work (staffers do not own what they write; freelancers grant one-time use with all rights reverting back to them).

One thing is certain, the heady days of newspapers and magazines boasting robust page counts and authoritative reporting and opinions filling mailboxes in rural Ontario and across Canada are vanishing. It isn’t just a piece of history that’s fading -like buggy whips or steel-rimmed wheels -it’s an industry that has proudly served as a conduit of valuable information for producers. But that conduit has narrowed and the flow of trusted and useful news and perspectives is slowing faster than most are willing to admit.

The eyes of the farming community are upon you, ag media.