Happy New Year and welcome to my first blog as editor of Farmers Weekly.
In a spirit of openness, we're trying to find ways to help our magazine readers and users of the website to understand better how we operate within the Farmers Weekly Group and to get a dialogue going to inform editorial decisions. We want to explain what we do, why we do it and hear your views and perspectives. Hopefully, this will help us get closer to farmers and help you influence future content.
One thing you can be sure of in farming is that everyone has an opinion. So I'm hoping you won't be shy in coming forward. In return, my mission is to be candid when replying and in explaining the challenges we face together in farming. Anything goes, talk about anything you like.
I may not be able to reply to all comments and ideas but will certainly try to read all postings to this blog. Where there are common themes, criticisms or questions, I will try to respond to them. With this in mind, I thought I would kick off by talking about a couple of the comments made about Farmers Weekly's Christmas issues.
There were a mixed bag of views about our Christmas magazines with most criticism about the size of the issues being too thin. December 21 was 116 pages, December 28 was 76 pages and January 4 was 100 pages. Some of you liked the approach we took with more reviews and reflection and looking to the year ahead. The exclusive interview with Prince Charles (December 28) was mentioned by one or two as a good read but the main query was whether 76 pages represented good value for money.
Christmas publishing is always a bit of a balancing act in terms of managing the volume of advertising versus editorial and the need for my team to get a much earned holiday. I'll admit that 76 pages for the issue between Christmas and New Year was on the thin side but reflected less classified and display advertising, which affected all publications across all industries. The news agenda was also incredibly slow that week, which is why we went ahead with the message from Prince Charles and the round up of 2007.
We always make a big effort at this time of year mindful that the Christmas issues get thoroughly read by farmers who have more time on their hands. Copy sales in the newstrade have held up extremely well, which bears this out. We are now getting back to our usual editorial pagination, which I think offers something for everyone and is pretty good value for money. I always say that at £2.15 Farmers Weekly magazine is still cheaper than a pint of beer and just as enjoyable. So don't just judge us on thickness and volume with one or two issues, judge us on the overall quality and usefulness of what's packed inside.
Looking forward to hearing from you....
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