Farm Progress
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Farm Progress is the publisher of 22 farming and ranching magazines. The company dates back nearly 200 years. Farm Progress Companies is owned by
Informa Informa plc is a British publishing, business intelligence, and exhibitions group based in London, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It has offices in 43 countries and around 11,000 ...
. Farm Progress has the oldest known continuously published magazine, ''Prairie Farmer'', which was launched in 1841. The company publishes 18 regional magazines with local coverage of each agricultural community. Farm Progress produces four annual farm shows including the Farm Progress Show, which launched in 1953.


History

The company currently known as "Farm Progress" started in 1819 with the ''American Farmer'' magazine. ''
Prairie Farmer ''Prairie Farmer'' is a weekly newspaper which covers agricultural and rural news in the state of Illinois. It was first published in 1841 in Chicago, Illinois by John Stephen Wright and was called ''The Union Agriculturist and Western Prairie F ...
'' started in 1841, followed by ''
Wallaces Farmer ''Wallaces Farmer'' is an agricultural newspaper based in Des Moines, Iowa. It is owned by media company Informa and operates as part of the company's Farm Progress division. History The newspaper's lineage can be traced back to the 1850s and tw ...
'' in 1855, which helped chronicle the vast changes in Iowa agriculture as well as provide information to help farmers trim costs and boost profits. Three generations of the Wallace family,
Henry Cantwell Wallace Henry Cantwell "Harry" Wallace (May 11, 1866 – October 25, 1924) was an American farmer, journalist, and political activist who served as the Secretary of Agriculture from 1921 to 1924 under Republican presidents Warren G. Harding and Calvi ...
, Henry A. Wallace, and Henry Browne Wallace, owned and operated ''Wallaces' Farmer'', which was then a newspaper. The Farm Progress affiliate Prairie Farmer purchased radio station WLS from
Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...
in 1928 and operated it primarily as a service to farmers. The station moved to the Prairie Farmer Building on West Washington Street in
Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
where it remained for 32 years. In 1959, American Broadcasting-Paramount Theaters bought the Farm Progress Group, largely to acquire WLS and consolidate it with ABC station WENR. In 1986, ABC merged with
Capital Cities A capital city or capital is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state, province, Department (country subdivision), department, or other subnational entity, usually as its seat of the government. A capital is typically a city ...
. In 1991, Capital Cities/ABC acquired the farm magazines of
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Harcourt () was an American publishing firm with a long history of publishing fiction and nonfiction for adults and children. The company was last based in San Diego, California, with editorial/sales/marketing/rights offices in New York City an ...
. In 1996, the
Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
Company purchased Capital Cities/ABC. In 1997, the Disney Company sold the Farm Progress Companies to
Rural Press Australian Community Media (ACM) is a media company in Australia responsible for over 160 regional publications. Its mastheads include the ''Canberra Times'', ''Newcastle Herald'', '' The Examiner'', ''The Border Mail'', '' The Courier'' and th ...
. Rural Press merged with Fairfax in 2007. In 2012, Fairfax sold Farm Progress to
Penton Media Penton was an information services and marketing company. The company's three largest revenue streams came from events, digital and marketing services. Although Penton had a long history (see below) as a trade publisher, in 2015 it reported that ...
. On November 2, 2016, Penton was bought by the UK based company
Informa Informa plc is a British publishing, business intelligence, and exhibitions group based in London, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It has offices in 43 countries and around 11,000 ...
. Progress Farm and its publications were integrated into the Informa Markets Division.


Current publications


Farm Progress Show

In 1953, ''Prairie Farmer'' teamed with WLS Radio in Chicago to host a field day where farmers could see first-hand the progress being made in farming equipment, along with seed varieties and agricultural chemicals. In subsequent years, the show evolved to include seed test plots and field demonstrations. The show typically was held annually at different sites in Illinois, Iowa, and Indiana. As the event grew, it became apparent that temporary sites were inadequate to handle the large crowds and exhibits. In 2005, a permanent biennial exhibit site was constructed near
Decatur, Illinois Decatur ( ) is the largest city and the county seat of Macon County in the U.S. state of Illinois, with a population of 70,522 as of the 2020 Census. The city was founded in 1829 and is situated along the Sangamon River and Lake Decatur in Ce ...
which hosted its inaugural show in 2005. For the 2007 show, the site was expanded and upgraded with asphalt paved streets. This is one of two permanent biennial sites constructed to host the show.
Boone, Iowa Boone ( ) is a city in Des Moines Township, Boone County, Iowa, Des Moines Township, and county seat of Boone County, Iowa, Boone County, Iowa, United States. It is the principal city of the Boone, Iowa Micropolitan Statistical Area, which encom ...
, was selected for the show's second permanent biennial site. In 2008 the site hosted its first show at its newly constructed permanent biennial facility. The show now alternates between these two permanent sites on an annual basis. The Boone site is developed on about at the intersection of U.S. Highway 30 and Iowa Highway 17, while the Decatur site includes of exhibits and field demonstrations. The Farm Progress Show is the oldest outdoor agricultural equipment exhibition in the United States, with more than 500 exhibitors. Farm Progress Companies does not release attendance figures, but the Decatur Convention & Visitors Bureau estimates attendance of at least 150,000 for the three days of the 2007 show.


References


External links

* http://www.farmprogress.com * http://www.farmprogressshow.com
Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections: ''Prairie Farmer'' (1841-1941)Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections: ''Wallace's Farmer'' (1898-1950)Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections: ''Ohio Farmer'' (1907-1922)Missouri Ruralist
finding aid at th
St. Louis Public Library
{{Informa Companies based in Kane County, Illinois Fairfax family Magazine publishing companies of the United States Publications established in 1819 St. Charles, Illinois Agricultural shows in the United States