APRIL 2, 2025
e-Newsletter subscribers
19,000 Social media followers 64,000 Rural mail & PO boxes every week 75,500 Unique online visitors every month 195,000 Podcast listens
News stories every month
Rongo Award for Excellence in Agricultural Journalism 2024
Agricultural Communicator of the Year 2024, 2022, 2012, 1996
Voyager Awards Finalist 2023, 2022 Winner 2019
A market analyst is predicting record lamb prices over the next 12-18 months, with prices hitting $10/kg by August and the price expected to lift to $10.50/ kg by July 2026. And that is a conservative outlook. READ IT
What’s leading theonconversation the front page of WeeklyFarmers this
Subscriber question: “I’m assuming you charge advertisers for their ads, so why the need for voluntary subscriptions?”
Answer: Yes, we do charge advertisers for their ads. We tread the fine line between charging too little and then needing to make the publication smaller with less content and more ads on each page, or too much and driving advertising elsewhere, also resulting in a smaller paper with less content.
Since COVID, there has been a steady decline in advertising volumes, for us and everyone, while print and distribution costs have risen significantly.
As owners, we’ve had no financial benefit from Farmers Weekly in the last two-three years. We’re subsidising it from other parts of the business. It’s now obvious that print advertising levels are not going to return, so it’s time for Farmers Weekly to stand alone and return to profit so we can do more and take on new cadets.
If we were one of the big publishers, we would have cut capability (editorial jobs) or closed it down more than two years ago. But money is not our only purpose. We think this industry needs Farmers Weekly. We are also determined to maintain the strength of our content team - newsroom journalists, contributors and analysts. They’re damn good at their jobs. Farming and publishing are tough gigs but we all do what we do for the right reasons. My promise to you, and every other farmer in New Zealand, is that Farmers Weekly will continue to support you for or as long as you want it to.
We may not always agree on all things either farming or publishing, but I think we will always agree that what we do is worth supporting.
A voluntary subscription is one way to do that. It is voluntary, because whether farmers can choose to pay or not, we think every farmer deserves a good farming newspaper like Farmers Weekly every week.
Thank you to our nearly 400 voluntary subscribers so far. We’re slowly heading to our goal of 8000. Please join the team, and keep firing questions and feedback our way.
Dean
Williamson. CEO and publisher
027 323 9407 |
dean.williamson@agrihq.co.nz
What our audience are telling us this week
YES
“Too much is being done. The government needs to respect landowners’ right to choose what activities they undertake on their land. Restricting land use activities just brings in more red tape, restricting hard working Kiwis who want to make an economic decision to afforest their land.”
NO
“I think the government needs to stop overseas investors purchasing our farmland and should be encouraging local farming to flourish and grow so our farmers’ skills and abilities to produce can expand. We need to encourage, acknowledge, and respect our farmers’ ability to farm responsibly.”
Does it worry you that as farmgate returns rise, the cost of meat and milk makes it difficult for many New Zealanders to afford these foods? Have your say at farmersweekly.co.nz/poll
William Beetham, chair of the Food and Fibre Centre of Vocational Excellence, tells Bryan about the recent work of the organisation and why he’s keen to see it continue past the end of its government funding at the end of the year.
Also on the Farmers Weekly podcast this week:
News Wrap | Scientists look to replicate pine successes in natives
Feature | How do we train and retain people in farming?
Market Insight | A look at the South Island calf sales
Feds Focus | Contract milkers up against it as drought lingers
We’ve done a lot of work with real leaders, and we’ve found a lot of really interesting information and opportunities that can be changed within the industry to create better success.
William Beetham, Chair of the Food and Fibre Centre of Vocational Excellence, Episode: How do we train and retain people in farming?
28 March 2025
Last week Farmers Weekly published a special report on the future of wool.
By no means a sugar-coated hype piece, the stories outline the difficulties for sheep farmers but also provide optimism through real world examples of innovation, research and wool’s unique potential.
It’s sometimes a bold move for businesses to advertise around special reports, after all they don’t want to be associated with potentially controversial content. But clickbait and controversy isn’t the style of the Farmers Weekly newsroom.
So well done to Wool Impact for recognising this and taking the leap as the exclusive advertiser within this special report online.
Their contextual advertising is paying off too - with readers clicking on the ads to sign up to the Wool Impact eNewsletter.
I read it online every day, with what’s important on the farm, and especially around the policy stuff. Reading Farmers Weekly has supported and enhanced my studies in public policy. It’s relevant.
Hunaara Waerehu
Ngāti Porou, Tūhoe, Waikato-Tainui (Ngāi Tai), Analyst, Taiao Connect, and Federated Farmers Gisborne/Wairoa executive member.
Senior reporter Neal Wallace has just returned from Singapore, where he discovered how the food tech powerhouse ticks. Look out for new stories in the Meeting the Market series next week as Neal reports on what he saw. Or, for his coverage so far, click here.
We know securing great media placements is all about planning. Get in touch with your Partnership Manager to secure one of these spots before they’re gone.
What’s hot, and what’s not in rural media here overseasand
Tracta’s Ian Howard has proposed 7 emerging trends in agrimarketing including shifts in marketing investment and, almost inevitably, AIpowered precision marketing. It’s a solid list that should spark some great conversations. But it also heeds a caveat - in marketing, some things never change.
In recent weeks Chorus and One NZ have run campaigns in Farmers Weekly, proving that national brands needing national reach still know the best course of action. Another excellent mass reach junction is regional Field Days. It was great to see Kiwirail / TrackSAFE present at South Island Agricultural Field Days last week. Rail safety is still a concern in regional New Zealand where a lot of tracks don’t have barriers or lights. The bold design of the Kiwirail / TrackSAFE marketing was a showstopper. A great way to stop farmers in their tracks.
