ATTOM Data would like to congratulate one of our longterm clients, The Progressive Farmer, on one of their latest stories, 5 Safest Counties to Live in Rural America. Every month Progressive Farmer talks about the unique challenges and joys of living in the country. They provide advice on almost every aspect of country living from farming for a business, fishing with the kids, picking the ripest tomatoes, to the safest and best rural places to live. ATTOM Data has been working with Progressive Farmer since the inception of their Best Places to Live in Rural America editorial five years ago, bringing their data-driven stories to life. So we were excited to partner up with them again to produce the safest rural places to live. Before any processing took place, the ATTOM Data team, including John Murphy, our Data Project Lead, worked in conjunction with Progressive Farmer and evaluated the relevance of every single data point to ensure that the needs of their readers would be satisfied.
For example the Accident Index; a methodology that we invented to measure the road safety relative to the rest of the country. This field was perceived to be particularly important to residents within a rural county because those within a rural county are more likely spend more time in their vehicle traveling greater distances then someone living in a suburban area.
The different rural counties chosen were based on certain requirements: home and land prices, crime rates, environment, education, economic factor, access to health care and others. The counties were first ranked using a proprietary formula based on these statistics, then arranged again based on editorial opinion after the magazine staff personally traveled to the selected counties.
We always look forward to building our relationships and partnering with media companies such as Progressive Farmer, where we can bring our comprehensive research skills and data to provide an extra dimensions to their content. Here’s what Jamie Cole, Managing Editor of Progressive Farmer, had to say about his experience working with us:
“We had already used the always reliable data to enhance the credibility of that well-regarded editorial which involved using the data to help define “rural,” working with independent statisticians and ATTOM Data itself to parse the data into what would be meaningful to our readers, and publishing the stats on 500 top rural counties on our web site. So when we decided to do the story on rural crime, it just made sense to leverage our relationship with ATTOM Data to pull it off.
I liked how ATTOM Data’s crime data was “relational” rather than just a meaningless number. If you see a county on our list—such as Boone County, Indiana—with a total crime rate of “10,” then according to ATTOM Data’s data it means you are only one-tenth as likely to experience crime when compared to the national average. For our readers, that really grounds the numbers in reality and is a real validation of their lifestyle. Farm life is inherently safe, fulfilling, rewarding; the numbers back it up.
I consider ATTOM Data an extension of my editorial team after leading this very successful editorial program for five years. Every interaction I’ve had with the company has left me feeling they bent over backwards, sideways and turned cartwheels to get me what I needed. It was a real meeting of the minds. Can’t beat that!”
We too, have greatly enjoyed working with Mr. Cole and the team at Progressive Farmer over these past five years and look forward to the opportunity to partner with them in the future to create more compelling data-driven stories. Check out what came of “the meeting of the minds”.
