Telum Talks To... Andy Thompson, Rural Editor for The Rural Roundup
Interview

Telum Talks To... Andy Thompson, Rural Editor for The Rural Roundup

By Kristy Nguyen

Congratulations on the re-launch of The Rural Roundup. What changes and familiar segments should listeners expect to hear?
The Rural Roundup (RRU) on Wednesday is an issues-based show that takes the lead on the rural topic of the day and explores it from several sides, with three snappy five-minute interviews all in the opening 20-minute segment. We want this segment to drive debate and provide thought-provoking rural content. We also cover sport, rural news, events, and announce our Rural Hero of the Week.

The Sunday RRU has more of a rural magazine style. We cover rural lifestyle and sport, IE celebrity cook Jo Seagar is a regular, and we talk to farmers in our Shedtalk segment. We finish the show with a panel discussion on topical rural issues.

What does a day in the life as Rural Editor of The Rural Roundup programme and podcast look like?
My role is split between two live radio shows a week - one on Wednesday, noon to 1pm, and the other on Sunday, 6am to 8am - as well as three to four individual podcasts a week. My days are different depending on what content I am producing.

No matter what, my morning consists of scanning as many news publications as I can for new political / rural news stories and updates to existing stories. I also scan the many press releases that hit my inbox to find new content and use social media; there are many rural Facebook pages and a very active agriculture Twitter community. Snapchat is also very useful for real-time farm updates from all over the country. On any given morning, I will view 30 to 40 snapchats to know what weather and track conditions are like all over New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom.

I also spend many hours on the phone with contacts and farmers, fact-checking stories and getting the latest gossip.

What do you most enjoy about your role?
I love that I can cover any rural topic I like, and do both short-form interviews and investigative long-form interviews via the podcast. As an ex-Dairy Farmer for over 25 years, I understand my audience so I really love being able to connect with farmers and voice their concerns and issues.

I believe I can bring empathy to the issues I cover. What I'm trying to achieve is asking the questions I would want to be asked if I was a listener of my show.

As someone who has had direct insight on the latest happenings in agricultural news, how have you seen the industry and rural communities recover from COVID-19?
Agriculture has many of the same issues as other sectors re: massive input price increase and labour shortages since the pandemic.

What is different is that agriculture continued during the lockdowns with little interruptions. Due to it being an essential service, there was no real loss of income so farming continued as usual.

Who else is part of the team behind the scenes at The Rural Roundup?
I have an Auckland-based Technical Producer and I do work with SENZ Content Manager, Reuban Bradley, and some of the SENZ sales team on some content components. It is mainly just me for editorial content. 

For PRs hoping to reach out to you, what advice and tips would you give to them?
Get to me early and keep it simple. I can be useless at getting back sometimes, so I am not offended if you follow up and remind me of what you want.

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