Customized Service: 8,896 Versions of One Issue : Farm Journal, 107 Years Old, Has Kept Abreast of Change
If Wilmer Atkinson were alive, the only thing he’d recognize about the magazine he launched a century ago would be the name.
Atkinson, had modest goals in March, 1877, when, operating out of a building shared with the Saturday Evening Post, he published the first issue of Farm Journal.
He intended it for “farmers and their rural residents, within a day’s ride of Philadelphia,” stating he would not seek a circulation outside Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.
That first issue featured homey articles on strawberries and window gardening and an essay contest for “our Lady Readers” on topics such as, “What shall a farmer’s wife read, and when?”
Today, Farm Journal still speaks to farmers’ concerns. But its articles are largely business-related, not pastoral, and its women subscribers are likely to read about commodity futures and the strength of the dollar in the daily paper without being told to do so.
Customized Magazines
Its executives like to say that Farm Journal, which has its headquarters in a stately building near Independence Hall and not far from its original office, is “the most complex magazine published in the world.”
“We customize individual magazines for individual subscribers based on what they raise on their farms,” said Dale Smith, president of Farm Journal Inc. “Our May issue set an all-time record--this is mind-boggling--with 8,896 versions, a combination of advertising and editorial changes, no two alike.”
To do this, Farm Journal relies heavily on the computer and demographics. It has compiled information on 2 million current an former subscribers--how much land they own, what they grow, how much they sell.
Using this information, Farm Journal tailors the magazine to readers. Cotton growers, for instance, won’t see a host of articles about cattle, and farmers who specialize in corn won’t see page after page devoted to the dairy industry.
The May issue contained a 20-page article that was mailed only to subscribers who met certain criteria--those with either 50 acres or more of hay, and-or 10 or more dairy cattle and-or 100 or more beef cattle--and carried advertising aimed at this target group.
Realizing the magazine may have become too complex, though. Farm Journal next year will take some of these special interest sections--Dairy Extra, Beef Extra and Hog Extra--and publish them as separate supplements to the magazine at no additional cost to subscribers.
One already is being distributed. Called the Top Producer Extra, it is devoted to the cream of the crop--farmers whose gross sales exceed $200,000 a year.
“From a target marketing standpoint we are segmenting (the advertiser’s) market, whether it’s large corn producers, all soybean producers, or the hog market or the cotton market, and allowing him to buy that market by individual producers,” said Publisher Lee Alexander.
