In an era with an email newsletter for everything, Travis Martin, the 2009-10 Indiana FFA state president, found one industry missing – agriculture.
While reviewing emails as a freelance marketer for tech startups, he thought, “Maybe I can be that curator for my niche.”
Enter his side hustle, Magnetic Ag, which launched in November 2020 “for the busy farmer, agribiz professional, college student, policy guru, ag teacher and others that call ag their ‘thing,’” according to the news source’s welcome email.
At inception, the five-minute news fix deployed twice a week with a snapshot of ag headlines, commodity market moves, policy updates, tech insights and more. Quirky and conversational, it’s “concise, digestible and enjoyable to read,” Martin says. The primary goal is to build advocacy and awareness for what’s happening across the entire industry, not just one’s own discipline.
“That interconnectedness is more tangible in ag than other places,” he says.
Martin wants to build an entire community out of that connection. Future plans include online reader forums and live events at colleges and ag company offices. Daily frequency of the newsletter and content catered to specific verticals (i.e., row crops and livestock) are also in the works.
The growth of Magnetic Ag – and the small team of writers behind it – can be attributed entirely to word of mouth; Martin has used no paid promotions. “Everyone just passes it on to someone else who they think will enjoy it,” he says.
