The Inside Story

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Country-Wide Publications Ltd (CPL) is the leading rural publishing company in New Zealand. The company is owned by Tony Leggett and Dean Williamson who bought it in 1997.

With over 30 years' experience in rural publishing, they have grown CPL into to a highly regarded company pioneering the way information is packaged for farmers and the farming industry.

CPL has grown quickly. Leggett and Williamson established the company in 1997, employed two other staff, published their first 32-page edition in February 1998, and distributed it to 25,000 farmers in the lower North Island. They went on to publish 10 more that year.

They now employ around 30 full-time and part-time staff and produce 78 publications a year under seven different mastheads. Their publications reach all 86,000 farmers in New Zealand at least once every week.

Leggett and Williamson's business specialises in providing farmers with valuable information through their niche publications. In the 2004 Colmar Brunton rural readership survey their two titles, Country-Wide and The New Zealand Farmers Weekly rated best for the top eight topics of importance to farmers. Farmers ranked them ahead of all CPL's rival publications.

The New Zealand Farmers Weekly is first for news and issues, market information and agribusiness. Country-Wide is first for all the farm management topics: research and development, animal health, pasture management and livestock.

They also scored highest for the longest time spent reading each publication and for time spent reading each page - great news for advertisers. Our readers are the new breed of farmers - business focused and always looking for information to stay competitive.