Podcast Is Word of the Year

Chuck Zimmerman

Farm PodcastingAccording to Podcasting News: “The Oxford University Press, publishers of the New Oxford American Dictionary, has selected podcast as the Word of the Year for 2005.”

Erin McKean, editor in chief of the New Oxford American Dictionary, said: “Podcast was considered for inclusion last year, but we found that not enough people were using it, or were even familiar with the concept. This year it’s a completely different story. The word has finally caught up with the rest of the iPod phenomenon.”

Supposedly the word will be in the new online update in early 2006. I wonder if it will include a sub definition for farm podcast?

Hey all you public relations and communications people. Let’s make farm podcasting the buzz of the new year.

Podcasts

News Release Follow Up Quandry

Chuck Zimmerman

I’m back from the east coast and catching up on email and news feeds. I just had to post some links about a topic I first saw on “Church of the Customer.” It’s about following up on press releases with reporters. A subject near and dear to my heart. In fact, this was a topic in most of my meetings this week.

Basically, Ben McConnell gets the ball rolling on the subject and then you can just follow the links to “The Publicity Hound” here and here. Then on to The Bulldog Reporter’s Daily’ Dog.

All they say applies to agricultural reporters. Basically they make a point about how annoying and ineffective it is to have people call reporters to follow up a news release. It happens all the time though. What I don’t think these folks take into consideration though is that public relations agencies in particular are under pressure from their clients to justify the investment they make in having releases produced and distributed. I think the agencies are trying to obtain documentation of the value of the client’s investment and there really isn’t an easy way to do this. It would be nice to have a personal relationship with every reporter out there but that’s just not practical. Clipping services don’t clip every publication and you certainly can’t monitor hundreds of radio and tv stations.

So how do you justify news releases? Good question. Can anyone comment on how they do this?

Public Relations

Janice Dahl Starting Anchor Management Group

Chuck Zimmerman

The AnchorageI just heard from Janice Dahl who’s on a little R&R before starting a new venture. Janice has been the executive director for the United Soybean Board for the last 8 years. Here’s what she wrote:

I will be starting a consulting company called Anchor Management Group, specializing in governance and management for associations and not-for-profits. We will be launching in January. It is a great opportunity to work with many associations’ managers and leaders to build their most effective governance models and, ultimately, to make their work as impactful as it can be on behalf of their members.

Congratulations Janice on your new adventure. We look forward to hearing about your progress after the first of the year.

Agribusiness

Nutritional Advertising By The Beef Industry

Chuck Zimmerman

MBIC Report PodcastThe Missouri Beef Industry Council’s weekly MBIC Report this week is with Missouri Beef Council board member John Kleiboeker of California, MO. John talks about the beef industry’s nutrition advertising campaign that will soon be appearing in magazines like Parents, Good Housekeeping, Bon Appetit, Weight Watchers, Shape and Men’s Health.

You can listen to this week’s MBIC Report here: Download MP3 File

The MBIC Report is an AgWired podcast which you can subscribe to using the link you’ll find on our “Blogs & Podcasts” page or on the MBIC website.

Ag Groups, Audio, Beef, Podcasts

Massey Ferguson 5400SA Series Announced

Chuck Zimmerman

Massey Ferguson 5400SA SeriesIn a first for our new AgNewsWire.AgWired.com service, Massey Ferguson announced their new 5400SA series of specialty tractors. As their release says, “Massey Ferguson’s new 5400SA tractors feature special cab styling for better maneuvering through mature fruit orchards, plus an advanced air filtration and pressurized cab air system that keeps interior air clean for the operator. ”

That’s a nice looking tractor and you can read the whole release as it’s posted for reporters on AgNewsWire.AgWired.com. Thank you AGCO and Massey Ferguson!

Agribusiness

Will The Missouri River Rise Twice

Chuck Zimmerman

CornTalk podcastCornTalk is the week’y interview program of the Missouri Corn Growers Association. The proposed plan by the Army Corps of Engineers to have two spring rises on the Missouri River could create another problem for farmers – crop insurance may not cover any losses as a result. Randy Asbury, Executive Director of the Coalition to Protect the Missouri River, talks about the potential problem and what is being done about it.

You can listen to this week’s CornTalk here: Download MP3 File

CornTalk is a weekly AgWired podcast which you can subscribe to using the link you’ll find on our “Blogs & Podcasts” page.

Ag Groups, Audio, Corn, Podcasts

ZimmComm Welcomes Amy Shaffer

Chuck Zimmerman

Amy ShafferThis has been a memorable day in the development of ZimmComm, Marketing & Communications as we welcome Amy Shaffer to our staff. Amy is our first employee and we’re really glad to have found her. Amy has a very strong IT background and will be helping us with the management and development of our various databases, including AgNewsWire.AgWired.com. I’ll add a photo as soon as I get one. I’m on the east coast this week making presentations and hope to have a photo to share by tomorrow.Added

With Amy on board I can spend more time out meeting with you to show you how to use the newest and most unique method of news release distribution to have hit agricultural public relations in a long time. Of course that’s AgNewsWire.AgWired.com and our agriblogging and farm podcasting services.

Remember those words – Agriblogging and Farm Podcasting – because you heard them first right here on AgWired. We are your one-stop shop to take your agricultural communications efforts to a whole new level.

Uncategorized

Trees For Troops Delivers

Chuck Zimmerman

Trees For Troops Camp Pendleton StopJust a week ago I posted an interview about the Trees For Troops program that’s being coordinated by the Christmas Spirit Foundation which is distributing trees that are donated by Christmas tree farmers. That effort is certainly underway and I got some photos, including this one of their stop at Camp Pendleton in California and the following one of their stop in St. Louis, MO.

The program began in Columbus, Ohio, when FedEx picked up about 200 trees from the Ohio Christmas Tree Association’s “Operation Evergreen.” FedEx provided international transport to Qatar from FedEx Express’s Indianapolis Hub. In addition to the international transport, the Trees for Troops program will collect and deliver about 3,500 freshly harvested trees to military bases in the United States along three regional routes (Western, Central, and Eastern) between Nov. 28 and Dec. 9. FedEx Freight will provide the pick-up and delivery service for the Christmas SPIRIT Foundation, the philanthropic branch of the National Christmas Tree Association (NCTA).

Trees For Troops St. Louis Stop“During a time of year when friends and family gather with loved ones, we must also remember the servicemen and women stationed overseas this holiday season,” said Douglas G. Duncan, president and chief executive officer, FedEx Freight. “With this small gesture, we want to extend a special thank-you to our brave troops and their families.”

Ag Groups

International Pressure On Domestic Farm Programs

Keith Good

FarmPolicy.comThe long awaited sixth W.T.O. Ministerial Conference will be held in Hong Kong, China, next week (Dec. 13–18).

According to the W.T.O. webpage, “This sixth conference will be vital for enabling the four-year-old Doha Development Agenda (D.D.A.) negotiations forward sufficiently to conclude the round in 2006.”

Embedded within the trade talks is the increasingly controversial issue of American and European farm subsidies.

Recently, in separate individual cases before the W.T.O., the world body issued decisions finding that some U.S. cotton support programs, as well as parts of the EU’s domestic sugar policy, violated certain aspects of international trade agreements.

The outcome of these cases has under girded the current round of multi-party trade talks. As added negotiating leverage, some countries may imply that insufficient movement in current trade talks may result in other commodity specific litigation that could bring additional pressure for domestic farm policy reform.

In a report released last Wednesday, Oxfam International noted that programs impacting corn, rice and sorghum could potentially face a similar fate as cotton in a W.T.O. litigated process if the programs are not changed.

Similarly, the Cato Institute noted in a report released this week that, “U.S. farm programs for a variety of commodities may be suppressing market prices in violation of the WTO Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures.”

And just yesterday, DTN writer Chris Clayton reported that, “The United States runs the risk of domestic farm programs getting ‘picked apart’ by trade cases from other countries challenging U.S. ag subsidies if a deal isn’t struck in the Doha Round of World Trade Organizations talks, USDA’s chief economist said Monday.”

Legal and political pressure placed on U.S. domestic crop programs from abroad seems certain to be a key factor in the 2007 Farm Bill debate.

Keith Good writes The FarmPolicy.com News Summary, an Email newsletter containing a summary of news relating to U.S. farm policy which is published most weekdays. For more information, go to www.FarmPolicy.com.

Farm Policy