Transcription of Feed & Grain Chat with Elise Schafer, editor of Feed & Grain.
Jackie Roembke, editor in chief of WATT’s feed brands: Hi everyone! Welcome to Feed & Grain Chat. I'm your guest host Jackie Roembke, editor in chief of WATT's feed brands.
This edition of Feed & Grain Chat is brought to you by WATT Global Media and feedandgrain.com. Feedandgrain.com is your source for the latest news, product and equipment information for the grain handling and feed manufacturing industries.
Today we're joined on Zoom by Elise Schafer, editor of Feed & Grain magazine. As the typical host of Feed & Grain Chat , she normally does the asking — but today she's joining me to share an update about the Industry Resource Guide, formerly known as the Showcase issue. Hi, Elise, how are you today?
Elise Schafer, editor of Feed & Grain: Hi, Jackie. I'm doing well. Thanks for having me!
Roembke: Let's get right into it. What was the Showcase issue? Tell us a little bit about Showcase and why the move to rename it?
Schafer: Yeah, well, Feed & Grain's Showcase issue was what we called our printed buyer's guide for roughly 50 years, and it was meant to be a wish book of sorts or a Christmas catalog for grain handling and feed mill facility managers.
It would come out every December and it was really inspired by the showcase windows that you would see at a department store, decorated with toys and tools and appliances. So that concept is what led to the Showcase issue because it featured hundreds of product listings and equipment and services with large pictures and descriptions.
Now today, our buyer's guide is synonymous with the Online Buyers Guide, which gives users everything in the printed edition in the digital format. So, it puts it in users' hands, in their phones or their tablets or at their desktop, and really, the buyer's journey starts there for most people today, whether it's consumers or for commercial grain industry and feed manufacturing purposes.
So, that was one reason for the change and the other reason was to better reflect the full range and the wide scope of directories that is included in the Industry Resource Guide. It's not only products, but we have a Product/Service Directory, we have a Millwrights Guide and we also have a Company Directory in addition to all of the products that you see in Industry Resource Guide.
Roembke: Well thank you so much for the explanation. Now what new features can readers expect to see in the first Industry Resource Guide?
Schafer: What's new in this year's Industry Resource Guide is the Top Product list, which will be an exciting feature of about 15 to 20 of the most engaged products that we have on our Online Buyers Guide. Now using digital metrics, we actually have the data to support which products, equipment and services people are coming to Feedandgrain.com for [the most] to find more information on. And this special feature will include product images, a description, as well as company information and a URL link directly to the product listing online.
We're also introducing QR codes this year to each of our title pages, so readers can scan the print version and pull up that category on their phone or their tablet and explore not only the products that were in print, but also similar products, equipment and services that you'll only find online.
And also, we did redesign our Millwrights Guide recently to include regional maps, vibrant colors and beautiful illustrations so readers can easily find their state and location, so they can look up millwrights to get the services that they need done on their mills and elevators.
Roembke: You mentioned Feed & Grain's Online Buyers Guide. How does that integrate with the Industry Resource Guide?
Schafer: Yeah, the Online Buyers Guide is found at Feedandgrain.com/product and it houses thousands of listings for prospective buyers — comprised of companies, products, equipment and services for the feed, grain, processing and allied industries. Throughout the year, suppliers send new information to our editors, or maybe their Feed & Grain sales managers, and we upload that information online to the Online Buyers Guide, so that information actually feeds the print edition. We take what's been published digitally first and essentially take a snapshot and that's what ends up in our December printed edition. And that's why every product URL or every category QR code that you see in the edition actually links back to our Online Buyer's Guide.
Roembke: When will readers get their 2022 Industry Resource Guide and when will it be available digitally?
Schafer: This is our December issue, and it'll hit mailboxes by the middle of December and be available digitally by the end of December. For anyone who doesn't subscribe, you can go to Feedandgrain.com/subscribe to get your copy of the Industry Resource Guide.
Roembke: Excellent. Well, it's been fun guest hosting today, Elise! If you'd like more information about the Industry Resource Guide and about Feed & Grain's Online Buyers' Guide, please visit feedandgrain.com/product. Thank you so much, Elise, and thanks to you for tuning in.
Schafer: Thank you, Jackie.
Elise Schafer, editor of Feed & Grain, sat down for a special Feed & Grain Chat with guest host Jackie Roembke, editor in chief for WATT's feed brands, to announce an update to Feed & Grain's December Showcase issue. The printed one-stop-shop for commercial grain handling and feed manufacturing professionals is now the Industry Resource Guide.
The new name and new features highlight the printed buyer's guide's integration with Feed & Grain’s Online Buyers Guide. Watch the video or read on to learn how feed mill and grain elevator managers can find everything they need to be more profitable and productive in one source — the Industry Resource Guide.