The Future of Ag Journalism

This is Tim Hammerich of the Ag Information Network with your Farm of the Future Report.

Technology seems to be transforming many aspects of the agriculture industry and ag journalism is no exception. Western Farm Press editor Todd Fitchette has seen these changes firsthand and says that there's a new norm in media consumption.

Fitchette… “ I personally don't subscribe to a newspaper anymore. I used to get two or three of them. I'd read them, read stories. A lot of people, they scroll through on their smartphone or their iPad. That's just kind of the way of the world these days. But we still have print products. Those print products go out. I'm sure the older farmers probably still have a copy of their print products on the dash of their white pickups. But more and more people are reading this stuff online, I would imagine.”

While media shifts from print to digital, artificial intelligence tools have started to find their own place in agricultural journalism.

Fitchette… “ I'm honestly just starting to learn about that. I learned recently with AI, it's a lot about the prompt you write for that system and then getting an answer back. I honestly haven't used it yet. I've kind of flirted with it a little bit just to see what it can do. And I've been to some educational seminars where they talk about it and some people are pretty excited about it. It does sound kind of exciting. But I'm pretty much old school. You know, tell me a story, Tim, and then I'll write about it.”

Once again, that’s Todd Fitchette.