Two agricultural communications companies, Agri-Pulse Communications and ZimmComm, are celebrating their 20th anniversaries in 2024.
Agri-Pulse is an all-digital media company that focuses on farm, food, and rural policy issues.
“We write about the politics and policies impacting our industry,” said Sara Wyant, editor and founder of Agri-Pulse. “We have a large group of editors in Washington, D.C., and just opened an office in Sacramento, California, to cover issues there.”
Wyant started Agri-Pulse after a stint in the magazine business.
“I had a background in publishing magazines and had worked for Farm Progress Companies, and I didn’t want to deal with paper and ink anymore,” Wyant said. “So in 2004, I started Agri-Pulse, and at first, it was just me. Soon, I was able to add other full-time employees.”
The past 20 years have been great for Agri-Pulse, but there are some moments that stand out.
“It’s been really fulfilling to see our brand grow with our promise of balanced reporting, and we’ve been well-recognized by both sides of the aisle,” Wyant said. “We’ve been able to expand our products, including a newsletter, daily web post, daily audio wrap, and a weekly TV show.”
The future is bright for Agri-Pulse because of the team behind the business.
“The future of any business depends on having a talented team full of passionate, devoted workers willing to go the extra mile or put in some extra hours,” Wyant said. “You’ve got to know your sources and anticipate when news might be breaking. We plan to add additional roles to ensure we have that talent and knowledge base that best serves everybody who wants to invest in agriculture.”
Chuck Zimmerman, president of ZimmComm, also is celebrating his company’s 20th anniversary. ZimmComm is a digital media service and content production agency that works with marketing and communications media professionals in agriculture.
“We started in 2004, and our idea was to help agribusinesses and organizations distribute press releases,” Zimmerman said. “The deal was that we would interview whomever was quoted in the release and include sound bites with it. That way, farm broadcasters could cut up the sound bites to use in their shows.”
In early 2005, ZimmComm made history.
“ZimmComm started the first agriculture-focused podcast and coined the term ‘farm podcasting’ with the ZimmCast, which continues to include interviews from around the agribusiness world,” Zimmerman said.
Zimmerman also took an interest in blogging agricultural news.
“I started blogging about agricultural marketing, and it blew up,” Zimmerman said. “Agricultural news wasn’t published on the Internet when we started 20 years ago. We also built blogs and, in some cases, produced content for companies or organizations.”
The company has overcome some significant challenges, including Covid-19.
“We were surprised we survived 2020 and kept going,” Zimmerman said. “There was a shift in the industry where I started noticing that companies were doing in-house communications.”
Zimmerman says his company will thrive in the future because of the tools that will be available.
“Tools like artificial intelligence, social media, and others will be the way of the future,” Zimmerman said.
