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Dec. 4, 2015 Agri Marketing reports:
Agri Marketing cornered Farm Journal CEO, Andy Weber, for his first interview about the acquisition. AM: That announcement this week certainly took the market by surprise, Andy. Can you tell us about the events leading up to the acquisition and plans moving forward? AW: Where do I start? We have been inquiring about buying Vance with both Vance owners and president like clockwork every nine to 12 months or so for at least the past 10 years. Strategically, we couldn't see a better fit for two large media companies in this space. We're not in the important Produce market, and Vance has a dominant market position in that industry. I can see us dramatically increasing that position by bringing our TV and radio assets into the mix and investing in their online database and website efforts on top of helping expand their already successful trade shows. AM: But what about the Livestock sector? Don't you compete head-on with Vance? What's the plan moving forward? AW: We've competed with them in the Beef and Dairy markets for 30 years-but not head-on. In fact, our offerings are complementary to Vance's. Vance's Dairy Herd Management competes head-to-head with Hoard's Dairyman-but our Dairy Today is positioned and circulated to only the largest dairy producers and complements Dairy Herd Management with a great reach and frequency position versus Hoard's. It's a similar story with Drovers CattleNetwork and our Beef Today. Drovers goes head-to-head with Penton's BEEF to the upper end of the market while Beef Today extends the reach at a competitive CPM to a mass audience. Drover's new Cow/Calf offering gives marketers the first publication ever that targets the small dispersed cow/calf producer market. Right now, we're conducting business as usual with all properties, with the key exception that we will be able to offer both Beef and Dairy marketers more complete solutions packages. This will take a bit of time, however-I'm expecting we'll have our act together from a packaging standpoint by the end of the first quarter next year. AM: So far most of our discussion seems to be about Print. With the name Vance Publishing, is that primarily what you bought? Print? AW: That might be a perception, but it couldn't be further from the truth. Print advertising comprises only 52% of the Vance portfolio. They have rapidly diversified with websites and other web promotional products, online databases, a robust marketing services business and trade shows. AM: How do you see that changing as part of Farm Journal? AW: It doesn't change; it accelerates as we invest in the Vance properties, develop new products and bring our multimedia platform to the mix. Right now, print advertising comprises only 31% of Farm Journal's portfolio. We've launched more than 30 new products since 2009 and doubled our size-and the ironic part is our print advertising has grown during that time, just not at the pace of our other media and new launches. We expect to apply the same formula to the Vance properties. AM: Sounds like a good fit. What about their other products? AW: For the past 18 months or so, we've substantially invested in research and product development in the retailer sector. This has been an area of keen strategic interest for us, but we've lacked a voice-a product in the channel to build around. Vance's Ag Professional and Greenbook now give us the No. 1 media presence with ag retailers, and we plan to aggressively build around that. Finally, the Doane market advisory service complements our Pro Farmers of America business very well. Pro Farmer has a large paid subscription following by farmers and ranchers. Doane brings some of that with a different product offering, but their main strength is with subscriptions from commercial clients. Doane's strong research capabilities expand our market intelligence expertise. It's a nice fit on both fronts. AM: The acquisition clearly changes the size and scope of Farm Journal. Do you know how you're going to fold the teams together? AW: We were determined to start melding the Vance and Farm Journal teams together from day one-and, most importantly, to take the first steps to maximize the best talent from both brands. As a part of that, Matt Morgan, who previously ran all of Vance's Agribusiness group, becomes Vice President of Row Crops for Farm Journal Media, serving as publisher of Farm Journal magazine and events and Top Producer magazine and events. In addition, Ag Professional and Greenbook will report to Matt, who will continue to oversee the Client Services Group. At the same time, Cliff Becker, Farm Journal Vice President, takes over leadership for the combined Livestock Division. Matt, Cliff and Shannon Shuman, who leads the Produce Group, will report to Ron Wall, Farm Journal Division President. The Doane Group will report into Chuck Roth, who runs our Pro Farmer division. AM: Andy, is there anything else you can tell us before we wrap this up? AW: Not much, though this is a very big deal for us and especially for our audiences and customers. We've spent an enormous amount of time in the past month planning the integration of these two great teams, and we got off to a great start this week meeting with all of the Vance people in person. That said, I'm sure there will be bumps in the road over the next couple of months as we fully integrate-but we're committed to making this as positive and clear-cut to our customers as possible, and I hope they have a little patience with us through the process. Tweet |
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