Farm Progress

U.S. agricultural trade press, industry-focused

Background

Farm Progress traces its roots to some of the oldest agricultural publications in the United States, including American Farmer (1819) and Prairie Farmer (1841), which is the oldest continuously published magazine in its portfolio. The company grew over the 19th and 20th centuries into a diversified agriculture media group with more than 40 brands and 22 regional farming and ranching magazines, plus the Farm Progress Show, the nation's largest outdoor farm show, launched in 1953 and held annually in Iowa and Illinois. Fairfax Media, an Australian company, owned Farm Progress before selling it to Penton Media in 2012. Informa PLC acquired Penton in September 2016 for roughly £1.18 billion, bringing Farm Progress under British corporate ownership. Headquartered in St. Charles, Illinois, Farm Progress operates as a B2B trade publisher — its business model depends on advertising from agribusinesses, not on reader subscriptions, which shapes its editorial incentive to serve commercial agriculture interests. The outlet covers agricultural policy including trade disputes and federal farm programs, and its tariff-era coverage has carried headlines critical of economic harm to farmers alongside reports on administration-announced aid packages, reflecting a practical, producer-focused lens rather than an ideological one.

Sources

1. Penton Media Buys Farm Progress From Fairfax Media — Farm Progress
2. Informa to Acquire Penton — InPublishing
3. Farm Progress — Wikipedia
4. Farm Progress Digital Solutions
5. Trump's Tariffs Generate $958M but Cost Farmers Far More — Farm Progress
6. Farmers Speak Out: When $12 Billion in Aid Backfires — Farm Progress
7. Farm Progress Show History

Profile compiled 2026-08-21; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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