During a recent conference call in preparation for this special history edition, I was asked how Farm Equipment came into the Lessiter Media umbrella.

After 12 years in the Chicago area running metal manufacturing magazines, I came back to the family business in Wisconsin in September 2003. Our plan was to grow our trade publishing business by acquiring niche business titles. I’d been looking around and engaged with brokers, but we weren’t seeing anything that interested us. Most were wildly expensive or wounded beyond repair. (Incidentally, twice we were presented with an idea to make an offer for Implement & Tractor (I&T) but were not overly excited about having to compete with Farm Equipment.)

The M&A process was slow-going, frustrating, and I was getting restless. I joined the 11-person company as executive vice president, which was a strategic planning and change-agent type role that not everyone on staff was excited about. I needed something to sink my teeth into here and to “show” the staff another way of doing things via purpose and discipline.

My dad’s old friend, Don Henning, who had been executive vice president at Johnson Hill Press (JHP) from the early 1970s and 1980s, was advising Badger Press in a “retirement gig.” He was in our office every once in a while talking about ag markets and pitching the firm’s printing services.

Opportunity Knocks

He knocked on our door one day to tell us that Farm Equipment, once the flagship title of JHP, was on the verge of being shut down. He grabbed me and my dad, Frank, and said, “You guys should go for it. This title has a lot of promise, and you should throw your hat in the ring.”

We thought about it and weren't certain that the small-billing title made sense, despite its synergies to our ag properties and my business-to-business background. Weighing the opportunity cost for anything we would pursue with our small staff, we told Henning we were taking a pass on what looked like a big turn-around job.

But Henning didn't let it go. For several weeks, he kept pushing us.

Eventually, we looked deeper. My dad and I took a field trip out to John Deere dealership Mid-States Equipment in Watertown, Wis., to see for ourselves what we’d be getting into. We also met Jim Rank for a lengthy lunch meeting in Fort Atkinson and asked Lyle Orwig of ad agency Charleston-Orwig to do a pros/cons of our circulation audit statement from the ad buyer’s perspective.

Shortly thereafter, Frank got on the phone with Rich Reiff, CEO of Cygnus Business Media CEO, and we prepared an offer that included the asset purchase for Farm Equipment, Farm Catalog for Today’s Top Farm Operator (now Farm Innovations) and Ag Industry Watch (now Ag Equipment Intelligence). It was a quick, trouble-free deal, without due diligence.

My dad was clear that “this is yours to run,” and I ran it the way I was accustomed to in Illinois. While we both wanted the same things, we have different styles, and this was a first-hand opportunity to “introduce” a more disciplined production and sales forecasting processes into our organization. And I, still in my first year with the company, needed to succeed if I was to gain his trust for more acquisitions, launches and the professional staff we needed.

Farm Equipment & FEMA

Three Farm Equipment staffers have chaired the Supplier Board of Governors at the Farm  Equipment Manufacturers Assn. (FEMA). Mike Lessiter also was elected to the FEMA Board of Directors in 2013-16.

• Jim Rank, 1984-85
• Rich Reiff, 1997-98
• Mike Lessiter, 2010-11

What was most unusual about the deal with Cygnus was that we agreed to contribute toward Jim Rank’s W-2 for a period of time. That was my dad’s novel idea — one I admit I told him I thought was absurd. But it was one of those cases where everyone benefited by thinking well outside of the box. And yes, father knew best.

The Rank experiment initially looked like it’d be a 6-month gig. But it continued for 7 years up until 2011, and gave him a second home after he retired from Cygnus.

“I sensed that business was going to be a little bit tight for the two of you, and it just seemed that when Farm Equipment came up, that was the opportunity that had to happen for the two of you,” recalls Henning. “I was pleased to see Farm Equipment land with you because of the Lessiter reputation for solid editorial. 

“And being the editorial leader in the market led to the other opportunities that materialized after you purchased it. The associations, Equipment Dealer and Implement & Tractor took notice. You took it to the next step, and you’re the one remaining publication, which tells the story.”

Farm Equipment has been a great fit for our small company. We’re grateful to Henning for persisting with us, to Rank for his insights and passions and to Reiff for giving us a fair shot because he knew the title would be well cared for. And for the dealers, manufacturers and associations who helped get us pointed in the right direction.

Lessiter Media’s First Edition

Farm Equipment had missed one of the scheduled issues prior to our acquiring it, so we had to hustle to get an issue out. We knew we wanted to change the focus and content direction of the magazine and had quickly formulated an editorial principles document (see Guiding Our Way for 20 Years). But we still needed to get the interviewing, photography and articles written and the issue produced before Farm Equipment lost more ground.

Lessiter Media’s first Farm Equipment in August/September 2004. The cover story featured Ohio dealer American Equipment Service and owner Ted Mallard (pictured at left).

We had mere weeks to put the first edition out and make the scheduled August/September issue, and we didn’t have many resources to draw on. Thankfully, the Cygnus team shared how valuable the regional associations could be to learning about dealers and unique practices, and one of my first calls was to Dave Kahler at Ohio-Michigan Equipment Dealers Assn. He was friendly and enthusiastic, and I decided my first trip would be to see him and Bill Garling at their Columbus, Ohio, office. The pair had alerted me to several dealers worth visiting, all of whom were receptive to a visit from Farm Equipment and its new staff.

My wife and I were expecting our second child within the month so I went right to it and flew to Columbus to meet with Kahler and Garling and make the dealer visits. I saw 4 dealers on that trip, two of whom were profiled in the first issue (American Equipment Services and Mechanicsburg Implement) before flying back via Dayton.

New Product Launches

Before it arrived at Lessiter Publications, Farm Equipment had a strong record of successful niche spin-offs. It sired OEM Off-Highway as well as Yard & Garden, Snow-Pro and others. Following are some of the more important launches under Lessiter Publications’ ownership.

Rural Lifestyle Dealer — The small tractor boom brought a brand new customer into farm equipment dealerships, what we’d come to call the “rural lifestylers.” This was a totally different customer and one that was intimidated by standing at the parts counter alongside farmers getting combine and planter parts. But it was a huge market, and after much research and interviews, we went ahead with a dedicated Rural Lifestyle Dealer magazine in fall 2007. It was announced in May and brought 21 advertisers when it was released that fall. The magazine and digital properties were later credited to bring “respect” to a lucrative consumer market that some dealer personnel were dismissive of. The Rural Lifestyle Dealership of the Year Award was started, and the Dealer Success Academy would follow. 

Precision Farming Dealer — We recognized the same thing in precision. There was so much going on in the farm equipment business that you couldn't cover it all in one magazine or one email newsletter. Dealers needed help in understanding the technology and how to train and communicate with farmers wanting to use it. So, we separated our precision coverage into its own brand, Precision Farming Dealer, and started with a newsletter in 2012. Within a year, we’d launch Precision Farming Dealer magazine and followed with a dedicated event in 2016.

Ag Equipment Intelligence — While the editors continued to churn out more reports and research, two significant launches occurred in On The Record, first broadcast in 2014, and the Executive Briefing Virtual Event in 2019. Also in 2018, the investment was made in a standalone website and e-newsletter for the title.

“We realized we needed somebody focusing on it because it was emerging so rapidly,” says Kanicki. “We hired Chad Elmore who worked on the title for a period of time before returning to the Diesel Progress world he was comfortable with. He also helped me realize that we had a need for even more manpower to support the growth, especially with the new websites and the need to fill them. And that's when we decided to hire 2 more positions. 

“The workload was enormous, but exciting. There was stuff happening on top of stuff happening on top of more stuff happening. And we were adaptable enough and had a couple of workhorses that we wanted to just keep it going.”

For that first edition, I wrote 5 of the feature articles, Frank wrote 2 and another staffer wrote up the AEM outlook report. Sales for that issue were handled entirely by the part-time Jim Rank. We needed to hire both editors and salespeople, but getting the first issue out was job 1. Things were happening fast, and I interviewed several salespeople from my Red Roof Inn hotel room between dealer meetings.

While I was on the road in Ohio, several staffers picked up the old issues and files from Cygnus’ offices. One of our most seasoned editors, Pat Tearney, later admitted his doubts in our decision to acquire the titles. The magazines were thin and had been operated to a much different editorial standard than what our company believed in.

The first issue included articles on:

• AEM Sales Forecast
• Profitable Market Niches: This theme included dealer profiles on Ohio-based American Equipment Services and Mechanicsburg Implement as well as dealer survey data on successful niche market segments
• Understanding & Communicating the ROI of Auto-Steering 
• Manufacturers Intent on Making Early-Ordering Programs Stick (based on a New Holland press junket in Fargo)
• John Deere’s 2005 Product Introductions
• New Product Coverage (Hay & Forage and Tillage Equipment)

We wanted to make a statement right off the bat and decided to print a larger 48-page edition, significantly more content than what dealers had come to expect. We wanted to state that this was a new day and the dealers and the manufacturers would be seeing something different in this magazine.

We’d brought the magazine back from its deathbed after just one missed issue. And while it was not a commercially successful issue with only 13 ad pages across 29 companies, the industry noticed and we had a successful issue under our belt before attending the Farm  Equipment Manufacturers Assn. (FEMA) meeting in Orlando. Interestingly, Grant Dunham, editor of the title under Cygnus, sent an email after seeing our first edition and commented that it was the best Farm Equipment he’d seen in years.