Indiana AgriNews via J.L. Farmakis

The Illinois AgriNews and Indiana AgriNews editorial staff is in the field each week, covering topics that affect local farm families and their businesses. Some of the topics the staff reports on include crop and livestock management, agribusiness and new products, market information and national and state political issues.

With field editors working throughout Illinois and Indiana, AgriNews readers receive news tailored to their farm areas every week. Local producers also share their stories each week on the newspaper's From the Fields and From the Barns pages. Rotating each week, weekly special sections include PorkNews, BeefNews, Farm Family Life and MoneyNews. The newspaper also publishes more than 20 special sections during the year. Since its inception, AgriNews' goal has remained the same. It still is focused on reporting events — both big and small — that impact the lives of farm families. "Whatever it is that makes farming a way of life is reported on in AgriNews," said Publisher Lynn Barker. AgriNews was started by the family-owned News Tribune in LaSalle in 1977. News Tribune advertising director Lou Lesniak, who served as AgriNews publisher until he retired in 1994, saw a need for a newspaper printed solely for farm families. The newspaper, which was first published as Ag-News, initially covered a three-county area. A year later, it was expanded to include three editions in 24 Illinois counties. By the end of 1980, the newspaper was circulating in every county in Illinois. The newspaper then was converted from publishing two to three times a month into a weekly publication, and the three different editions were combined into one.