The Utah Farm Bureau News (blog post)
Nearly 100 years ago, when the Utah Farm Bureau Federation was founded in 1916, most people in the state lived on farms and ranches.
Today, the Utah Farm Bureau still supports agriculture, but its membership also includes non-farmers who join the organization to take part in its insurance programs. This contrast in membership requires the organization to communicate to different types of members in distinct ways. These varying approaches are apparent in the organization's publication, the Utah Farm Bureau News.
Matt Hargreaves, the vice president of communications and editor of the Utah Farm Bureau News, says the publication comes in two formats (a glossy magazine that comes out quarterly and a newspaper that comes out in the months that a magazine isn't issued; the December and January editions are combined into a single magazine). The two formats have different, but overlapping audiences and different communication goals.
Hargreaves says, “The newspaper goes out to those that are actual production agriculture oriented, and that's more into the kind of policy angle of agriculture. Some of the specifics of issues, or it's also a newsletter in some ways as to how we can interact." He says, "The magazine takes a broader approach, and that goes to the over 28,000 Farm Bureau members, and that's trying to help educate and inform, build relationships with. If anything it's to build unity, so that the time comes when there's a vote on something or we're trying to help them understand who the farmer really is.”
Hargreaves further explains how the magazine's content is aimed at appealing to a broad audience, “In our magazine, which goes out to farmers, but a lot of non-farmers. I try mix things up with some kind of light-hearted feature type things about food. Because soccer mom and dad from South Jordan might not really care about fencing rules and transportation regulations, how it impacts farming, but they care about the food they eat.”
Information on the Utah Farm Bureau's website shows the newspaper's audience is much smaller than the magazine's. It's distributed to only 7,000 readers. Hargreaves says that the publications also go out to the state's news reporters, politicians, libraries and FFA chapters.
You can check out the Utah Farm Bureau News by going to issuu.com/utahfarmbureau.