Sandhills Publishing Company Revenue and Competitors

In 1978, Tom and Rhonda Peed founded Sandhills Publishing (then known as Peed Corp.) in an old blacksmith shop in Webster City, Iowa. The company had only seven employees at the time, two of whom were Tom Peed's parents. The first Sandhills publication, Machinery Trader, rolled off the presses in March of that year. The company sent the inaugural edition of this trade publication, which targets buyers and sellers of heavy construction equipment, to 20,000 readers. Lacking sophisticated mailing equipment, the staff labeled each of the copies by hand and dropped them off at the local post office in a pickup truck. Though the company's beginnings were hardly glamorous, Machinery Trader found a niche in the construction industry, and circulation increased. As the publication grew, so did Sandhills. By 1985, the company had introduced three more trade publications: Processor, Controller, and Truck Paper. Today, Sandhills Publishing sprawls over a 68-acre campus in northwest Lincoln just off Interstate 80. Since making the move west, Sandhills has added three consumer-interest magazines for computer users: PC Today, now an online PC products for sale service; Smart Computing, formerly known as PC Novice; and Computer Power User. New trade publications include Executive Controller and Machinery Trader Marketbook.