Andrew Douglas B2B journalist, turned PR man, specializing in new media.

About

For 15 years I have been immersed in agriculture and food trade media -- first in public relations, then as a journalist. Now I'm back in PR and I'm working through one of the most fascinating times the journalism and public relations industries have ever gone through.

I want to help journalists and PR professionals talk our way through this increasingly web-centric world. The Internet is turning our business models upside down. It's proving to be a wild ride and I want to help us navigate these new waters.

I started my career in public relations at Fleishman-Hillard and then Quarry Integrated Communications. But for eight years ending in 2008, I was an associated editor at Country Guide magazine, a national trade magazine for agriculture. Those were good years, working for Dave Wreford, Peter Gredig and eventually Tom Button, writing feature-length stories and traveling North America and parts of Europe.

In retrospect, I wonder if I worked through the glory years for trade magazines. Ag publications are generally still in strong financial shape. But on the horizon we can see the giant wave that has rolled over media serving most other industries. The wave, of course, is the Internet, and it's already starting to rock the ag-writing boat. Agencies are keying on web ads, magazines are spending bucket loads on new web sites, editors are blogging, readers are tweeting and no one knows which of the myriad revenue rivers will be deepest in the future.

For most of the time I was at Country Guide our main concern was how we were performing versus our other print competitors. But now my friends still working in the industry are being asked to figure out how the web fits into their world. And my former colleagues on the sales and publishing side are preparing for the inevitable business changes that this new web 2.0 world will bring.

In November 2008 I joined McCormick Global Communications, a full-service marketing communications agency. Now I work on the other side of the fence to journalism in public relations. My roots as a reporter run deep though, and I can't help stepping back and looking at the trade-media industry to see where we're at and where we're going.

Of course, working in journalism, public relations and new media is just part of who I am. I'm also a sessional instructor in the associate diploma in turfgrass management program at the University of Guelph, teaching a course called turfgrass communications, with Owen Roberts and my wife, Anne Douglas, who works in the marketing department at the Guelph Food Technology Centre.

I'm also very involved in my church, www.kortrightchurch.org and of course my family.

Mike Wilson (left), president of the International Federation of Ag Journalists, and yours truly.

Finally, may I brag? In September 2009 I won two writing awards at the Canadian Farm Writer's Federation annual meeting. One was in the press feature category and the other in the monthly press reporting category.

But enough about me. Let the conversation begin.