Extension on the Brink - Meeting the Private Sector Challenge in the
Information Marketplace
Michael D. Boehlje
David A. King
The Cooperative Extension Service is facing unprecedented competitive
pressure in the information and education marketplace. As data are combined
with knowledge to create information from which revenue and value can be
gained, private information providers are placing Extension at a competitive
disadvantage. As information customers reassess their needs and place higher
value on convenience and access over objectivity, several questions must be
answered. Chief among them: Can Extension and the Land-Grant System survive
and succeed in head-to-head competition with private information providers,
or will the system be most successful as a wholesale source of information
and education in partnership with private-sector information providers?
Full text (pdf)
Michael D. Boehlje is a professor of agricultural economics at Purdue
University. David A. King, the Head of the Department of Agricultural
Communication at Purdue University and an ACE member of twenty-plus years,
presented an earlier version of this paper at the 1996 Agricultural
Communicators Congress in Washington, D.C. Since then, the authors have
used this paper as the basis of discussions with several groups including
the Purdue Council for Agricultural Research, Teaching, and Extension
(P-CARET).
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