This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we're keeping it all in the family with a roundtable episode featuring some of the women who work at Lancaster Farming.
Joining co-hosts Candice Wierzbowski and Stephanie Speicher from the editorial department are Kelly Thomas and Rebecca Schweitzer-Benner, and from the advertising department are Brittany Copenhaver and Torey Shotzberger.
While most of the guests had an ag-adjacent background prior to working for Lancaster Farming, Shotzberger grew up on her dad's hobby farm.
"I grew up helping him with hay and other crops and sitting in the tractor and combine," Shotzberger said.
Now she's working as an inside sales representative at Lancaster Farming, helping customers place ads each week selling items ranging from farm equipment to animals to hay.
Copenhaver is also an advertising sales representative focusing on auction ads.
"It's very important for them to get (the ads) in to get the exposure that they do need for their client," Copenhaver said. "I'm not just helping them. I am helping also their client reach the maximum visual of their ad and try to get their property sold, or their pieces, for the most money possible."
On the editorial side of the roundtable, Schweitzer-Benner is the special sections editor, a job she said fits nicely with her degree in professional writing.
"I go and I learn about a topic that I might not know anything about beforehand, and then I figure out how to present it to people who also might not know anything about it," Schweitzer-Benner said. "It's been a lot of fun."
Thomas, who has a background in both print and broadcast journalism, joined the team at Lancaster Farming after being out of the news industry for a number of years.
Now she edits the food and family section, the B Section.
"It's a lot of responsibility trying to put together B Section," Thomas said. "This is the first time that I get to put together and see a finished product of my work. I think there's a greater responsibility and accountability that comes along with that."
Though the advertising and editorial departments perform different jobs, there was one commonality between the departments — a focus on people.
Whether ad customers, freelance correspondents or the subjects who are interviewed, the people of the agriculture industry were a favorite of all the guests.
The FarmHouse podcast will be taking a short break from publishing. The next new episode will be out Oct. 17.
Listen to the FarmHouse episode mentioned featuring Laura Zoeller here:
Love, Loss and Livestock With Laura Zoeller
Listen to the FarmHouse episode mentioned featuring Katie Dotterer here:
Breaking Down Language Barriers on the Farm With Katie Dotterer
