Leadership changing at Hoosier Ag Today; HQ moving to West Lafayette
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Gary Truitt, the founder of Hoosier Ag Today, has stepped down as president, though he will remain active with the agriculture media company, including serving as chairman of the board.
Truitt, who has led the company since its founding in 2006, is being succeeded by Eric Pfeiffer, who previously served as vice president.
Hoosier Ag Today also announced this week that its headquarters is moving from Zionsville to West Lafayette, effective this month.
In an interview with Inside INdiana Business, Truitt said the leadership change has been in the works for a few years as the company moves toward becoming employee-owned.
“I felt that this was the best way to provide sustainability,” Truitt said. “I’ve been through a number of of buyouts and sell outs over the years, and oftentimes the vision and the history and the brand really suffers when those kind of things happen. So this was a way for us to continue the vision, to continue the brand, to continue the credibility that we have built with Indiana farmers.”
Truitt established Hoosier Ag Today after the radio network he helped build over the previous 20 years was sold and later disbanded. Today, the company provides agriculture news to 75 radio stations in Indiana and another 35 in Michigan with its Michigan Ag Today brand.
As more radio stations moved away from having in-house agriculture reporters, Truitt said Hoosier Ag Today has been able to carve a niche for itself by providing key information for farmers.
“While there’s lots of ways to get information these days, farmers still rely on local radio stations,” he said. “Radio is one of those things that reaches farmers when they’re in the field. Farmers don’t sit in an office. They’re out. They’re in the barn, they’re in the truck, they’re in combines, in tractors, and so they need information.”
Eric Pfeiffer has been with Hoosier Ag Today since 2018, assuming management responsibility for all aspects of the company.
“I’m both thrilled and blessed for the opportunity to lead a tremendous group of talented individuals who care so deeply about our farmers in Indiana, Michigan, and around the country,” Pfeiffer said in written remarks. “While management is changing, our core values won’t be. We’re still here to provide timely, relevant, and credible information to our farmer listeners and those who support them just as Gary intended when he created HAT in 2006.”
The move of the company’s headquarters to West Lafayette, Truitt said, was simply a matter of convenience, as they already have two studios there. He said the proximity to ag experts at Purdue University is another key reason for the move.
“Being able to be 10 minutes from the Purdue campus, from being a few minutes from the Purdue research farms, gives us an opportunity to have a better pipeline for that information going forward,” he said. “So that I think it will put us in a better position to to keep that information pipeline flowing from Purdue to the farmers across Indiana and across the Midwest.”
The leadership transition is effective today, but Truitt said he will continue as owner until the company moves to employee-owned, which will take a few years to complete.
Truitt will also remain in an advisory capacity and will be moving away from the Hoosier Ag Today radio broadcasts but continue to grow the company’s footprint in the podcast world.
“Going forward, I think that the change is going to be where it’s more content driven, as companies want to get their content out in their way,” he said. “So using content, using podcasts, using video pieces are becoming a bigger and bigger part of our business model now, and I think going forward, we’ll continue to see that grow and change and become a bigger part of what ag communications is.”
Ultimately, Truitt said his goal is to ensure that Hoosier Ag Today is in a sustainable place for the next generation, and having the company be employee-owned will be a key part of achieving that goal.