Farm and Home Publishers

What Farm and Home Publishers does

Farm and Home Publishers is a privately held Iowa-based publishing company founded in 1981 that produces county-level rural directory books covering approximately 530 counties across 13 Midwestern and Mid-Atlantic states (Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and Wisconsin). Each book pairs township plat maps identifying rural landowners with directory maps listing rural residents, and is spiral-bound and mailed free of charge to every rural household in covered counties on an annual cycle.

The company's core technology backbone is a full Geographic Information System (GIS) implementation on Esri ArcGIS, which holds a continuously maintained 40+ year dataset of landowner and rural resident information. This GIS environment supports the printed directories, a Digital Flip Book version online, multi-county custom wall maps sold on request, and Book Sponsorship Program publications produced to specification for county governments, 4-H, Soil & Water Conservation Districts, and Farm Bureau. A separate FHP Print & Promo line provides commercial printing, mailing, and promotional products.

Farm and Home Publishers monetizes primarily through local business advertising embedded in the free-mailed directories, supplemented by revenue from custom map sales, institutional sponsorship publications, and commercial printing services. Distribution is executed through free annual mailing to rural households and through regional sales representatives who make in-person sales calls to advertisers and institutional partners rather than relying on phone or email outreach.

Name

Farm and Home Publishers

Legal name

Farm and Home Publishers, LTD

Website

https://www.farmandhomepublishers.com/

Company type

Private

Founded year

1981

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Farm and Home Publishers is a privately held Iowa-based company, founded in 1981, that publishes annual county-level rural directory books pairing landowner plat maps with rural resident directories and mails them free to households across approximately 530 counties in 13 states, monetizing via embedded local advertising, custom maps, and institutional sponsorship programs.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Rural Directory Publishing

NAICS

Book Publishers (51313), Directory and Mailing List Publishers (51314)

SIC

Books: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2731)

akta.pro primary industry

General Trade Publishing (Adult Fiction & Nonfiction) (MPAJAAAA)

Keywords

• Rural directory publishing
• Plat map publishing
• County directory books
• GIS mapping services
• Rural advertising media

Headquarters

HQ city

Belmond

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Personnel, Supply Chain

Revenue model

1. Advertising Revenue: Local businesses advertise in the rural directory books. The books are mailed for free to rural households annually, creating a captive audience for advertisers. This is the primary revenue model supporting free distribution.
2. Custom Maps Sales: Multi-county wall maps sold to customers for display in homes or offices.
3. Book Sponsorship Program: Partners with organizations like county governments, 4-H, Soil & Water Departments, and Farm Bureau to produce custom publications to their specifications, creating custom county plat books to sell or drive support for organizational activities.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Farm and Home Publishers publishes county-level rural directory books that combine plat maps of rural landowners on one side with directory maps of rural residents on the other. The spiral-bound books are mailed free of charge annually to rural households across approximately 530 counties in 13 states, generating revenue primarily from local business advertising placed within the publications. The company also produces custom multi-county wall maps, a Book Sponsorship Program for partner organizations, digital flip book versions, and commercial printing services through FHP Print & Promo.

Product overview

Farm and Home Publishers is a single-product publishing company offering county-level rural directories. The core product is the Rural Directory Book, a county-specific publication containing plat maps and rural resident directories. The product line includes the core Rural Directory Books (available by county across 13 states in approximately 530 counties), Custom Multi-County Wall Maps, the Book Sponsorship Program for custom publications, Digital Flip Book versions of directories, and FHP Print & Promo commercial printing services. All products serve the rural community with land and resident information.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Rural Directory Books County-level spiral-bound books combining township plat maps of rural landowners with directory maps of rural residents. Published annually and mailed free to every rural household in approximately 530 counties across 13 states. Sold directly via the company website by state and county.
• Custom Maps Multi-county wall maps produced to customer specifications for display in homes or offices. Customers can request custom area and feature specifications for sizing and pricing.
• Book Sponsorship Program Custom publication service partnering with county governments, 4-H organizations, Soil & Water Conservation Departments, Farm Bureaus, and similar organizations to produce custom county plat books to their specifications for sale or to drive support for organizational activities.
• FHP Print & Promo Commercial printing services including mailing services with postage rates and promotional products such as gifts, apparel, and gear.

Named customers8 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• County GovernmentscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFHP partners with local county government officials to produce rural directory books. County governments support the publication and help distribute to rural residents.
• 4-H OrganizationscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFHP works with 4-H organizations to produce custom county plat books to sell as a service or to drive support for organizational activities.
• Soil & Water Conservation DepartmentscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFHP partners with Soil & Water Conservation Departments to create custom county plat books. Testimonials from Lawrence County Conservation District and Stone County Soil & Water Conservation District confirm successful partnerships.
• Farm BureaucoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFHP collaborates with Farm Bureau organizations to produce custom publications and support rural communities.
• Esri (ArcGIS)coreTechnology or IntegrationFHP utilizes Esri ArcGIS software, the industry leader in GIS technology specifically designed to capture, manage, analyze, and display georeferenced information. This technology enables FHP's full GIS conversion and mapping capabilities.

Scale indicators4 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Rockford Map Publishers: Publishes county plat books and rural directories across multiple Midwestern states, operating the same product format, sales motion, and customer base as Farm and Home Publishers.
• Mapping Solutions: GIS-based mapping and plat book publisher serving county governments and rural audiences in the Midwest, with a closely comparable product offering and customer mix to FHP.
• Heartland Mapping: Regional mapping and plat book publisher producing county-level land and owner maps for rural Midwestern counties, with a directly comparable product and customer base to FHP.

Emerging players

• AcreValue: Digital land data platform that provides parcel-level landowner, soil, and valuation information across rural US counties — competing with FHP's directory as the default digital lookup for rural parcels.
• Reonomy: Commercial property and ownership data platform that increasingly covers rural and land parcels — competing for the same underlying landowner data demand that FHP serves via print directories.

Broad incumbents

• Farm Progress: Large agricultural media portfolio spanning print, digital, and events serving the same farmer and agribusiness audience as FHP, but as part of a much broader agricultural information offering.
• DTN / Progressive Farmer: Major agricultural information and media platform reaching farmers, ranchers, and agribusiness — overlapping with FHP's rural advertiser and farmer end-user base through a much wider, multi-format offering.

Others

• Successful Farming: Long-running agricultural magazine and digital brand serving the same farmer demographic that FHP reaches through its rural directories; competes for rural ad budgets rather than directory sales.
• LandWatch: Online rural land and property marketplace that surfaces landowner and parcel information to land buyers — adjacent to FHP's directory use cases but monetized via listings rather than advertising.
• AgWeb: Digital agriculture news and market platform owned by Farm Journal, serving the same farmer and rural business audience that FHP reaches through its print directories and rural advertising base.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Farm and Home Publishers