2064 – What does the future hold?
Time for a party! Exactly 40 years ago this month, Pig Progress as well as its sister title Poultry World were created. Therefore, me and my colleague Fabian Brockötter sat down with Wiebe van der Sluis, founder of both titles, to reflect on what happened at that time in late 1984 when magazines were started – and how this has led to flourishing multi-media titles 40 years later.
All this reminiscing has made me curious about what the next 40 years has in store. Where will we be in 2064? Will magazines still exist? Or perhaps they will be re-introduced, similar to records which now enjoy a revival, while presented as a novelty. What type of communication will the media be able to use? In 1984 nobody had any idea about the Internet, mobile phones, social media, selfies, drones or webinars and what impact they would have.
And will media play the same role as they do these days? With mass communication being available to everyone, I see many institutes, universities and companies exercising their own media outreach. They write their own news, make their own podcasts, publish their own farm features and so on.
It is my firm belief that it matters who’s sharing the information with you, the reader. If the source is credible, then the information has to be credible too. I am confident that the current and future editors of our titles will continue to follow that bottom line – for the next 40 years.
