Progressive Farmer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Progressive Farmer is a country life oriented magazine, published ten times a year. It was originally one of the most renowned and significant publications of the twentieth century.[citation needed]
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[edit] History
Founded in Winston, North Carolina in 1886 by Confederate army Colonel Leonidas Polk, the publication was intended to bring the latest information on crop and livestock production to the newly united nation's agrarian economy in the Southeast. The publication was originally a broad sheet newspaper, but evolved in to a tabloid publication and remained that way for decades. One of the most notable achievements of the magazine was its continual crusade and endorsement during the early twentieth century of the land grant college subsidies provided to Agricultural and Mechanical colleges across the United States.
[edit] Merger with Southern Farm Gazzette
The magazine broadened its reach beyond the Southeast by merging its North Carolina operation with the Southern Farm Gazette newspaper published in Starkville, Mississippi. This was a major innovation in publishing at the time. Merging these two farm publications established the first publication in history to publish regional editorial specific to its circulation areas. This merger of the Progressive Farmer and the Southern Farm Gazette resulted in the need to have a production and printing facility that would be a one day train trip to both of the editorial offices in Mississippi and North Carolina for receiving the typewritten feature stories for publication. It was decided in 1911 to establish a central office in Birmingham, Alabama.
The Progressive Farmer Company continued to publish across the Southeastern and Mid-south regions soon expanding successfully into Texas and the Southwest. Serving farm information needs, publishing through two world wars, crusading for important rural farm issues such as rural electrification, soil conservation, rural education and modern agricultural technology, the magazine soared to a circulation high of 1.3 million by the 1960's.
[edit] Launch of Southern Living
In 1966, the management, lead by Emory Cunningham and the editors of Progressive Farmer, launched Southern Living magazine fashioned after the lifestyle and home life section in the magazine. The Progressive Farmer had extended its appeal among suburban housewives, and that segment of its circulation received the new magazine, Southern Living to establish its distribution and advertising rate base. From the pages of Progressive Farmer rose the largest and most successful regional publication in history. Consequently, Progressive Farmer was able to editorially focus more completely on production agriculture and concentrate circulation efforts to the rural farm household. The launch of Southern Living was an outstanding strategic move for the Progressive Farmer Company. It was the seed that produced and evolved the company in to Southern Progress Corporation.
[edit] Midwest expansion
In the early 1980's the editors of Progressive Farmer began a regional edition of Progressive Farmer in the twelve Midwestern states. It was distinctively different from the main Southern issue and was used to establish a circulation and advertising foothold in the Midwest. In 1985, Southern Progress Corporation was purchased by Time, Inc. By the end of the decade, Progressive Farmer Midwest was incorporated in to the main edition's editorial and circulation making Progressive Farmer a nationwide production agricultural and lifestyle publication with a circulation of over 700,000. During the 1990's Progressive Farmer enjoyed prominence among farm readers and advertisers with special editorial efforts in farm safety and rural recreation blended with production agricultural reporting.
In 2002, the magazine faced a crossroads. Management had a decision to make between two camps of thinking for the future direction of the magazine. It was a decision between continuing the efforts at circulation growth with production agriculture households as well as "hobby farmers" or concentrate only on the new rural land owner or "suburban ruralists", an urban family moving to the countryside. A dramatic new look and editorial focus resulted from managements adoption of a new Progressive Farmer magazine themed only to the "suburban ruralists".
After 130 years of publishing under the company it founded, Southern Progress Corporation, a division of Time-Warner announced it had sold the Progressive Farmer magazine, circulation 620,000, to a former advertiser, Data Transmission Network, based in Omaha, Nebraska. It was announced by DTN that Progressive Farmer will continue to be headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama.
