Making the News for Over 40 Years

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This is a special edition of the Fillmore County Journal as we celebrate the 40th anniversary of publishing this community newspaper.

What makes this so special is that we have an opportunity to celebrate something that rarely happens with community newspapers – especially these days.  While corporations have gobbled up community newspapers throughout the United States, there’s been a continuous heritage of family ownership for the Fillmore County Journal.

The celebration of this newspaper anniversary is a celebration of local news coverage for the people and communities we serve.  I once wrote an editorial referencing the number of names and faces in a single issue of this newspaper.  In that one issue we had between 800 and 900 local people appearing in articles and photos.

The people and the communities we serve lay the foundation for the content that grace these pages each week.

Every human interest story we share.  Every government meeting we cover.  Every photo we capture.  We know the work we do matters to the people we serve, which makes us feel good about the work we do.  It is a privilege and an honor.

And, what makes this newspaper truly rare is that everyone in our coverage area receives this newspaper for free.  The “free” part is something very unique, because historically most newspaper models were built on a subscription-based platform.  The only way this newspaper is delivered to all households for free is because of the businesses who advertise and support local journalism.

The Founders

I sat down with Richard Kelly on the front porch of his farmhouse in the rural Highland area, located on the bend of a gravel road in Amherst Township.

Richard and his late wife Esther started publishing the Fillmore County Journal in 1985.  Esther has been gone since 2021, but Richard is blessed to have his sons Brad and Mike living within earshot of his farm.

On August 14, Richard turned 81 years old.  He was 40 years old when he launched the Fillmore County Journal – literally a half a lifetime ago. 

For Richard, the FCJ was just one of his many accomplishments.  He was an entrepreneur based on the nature of his work ethic and determination to make something succeed.  And, he also knew he wanted to work for himself.

His destiny began long before he arrived in Fillmore County, when he married the love of his life, Esther.  He was from Jesup and she was from Elkader.  Both Iowans met up in Waterloo, Iowa, after Richard returned from serving four years in the Air Force from 1962 to 1966 during the Vietnam War.  They married and started a family with the addition of their sons Brad and Mike. 

At first they bought a duplex, living on one side, so they could collect rent to help pay the mortgage.  Eventually, they moved into a single family home and held onto the duplex for additional income.

Richard grew up on a farm and had the itch to raise his boys on a farm.  So, they packed up their Rambler – Richard, Esther, Brad and Mike – and they headed north to Rochester, Minn., where they spoke with a realtor about farmland for sale.  

They found a farm in the Chatfield area and they took the leap of faith.  Richard and Esther sold their home and duplex in Waterloo, and invested in their new farmstead in Southeast Minnesota.  

After one year, Richard found another farm in the St. Charles area that caught his attention.  They moved from Chatfield to St. Charles, and would farm there for three years before finding the 240 acre farm they eventually purchased in Amherst Township in 1977.  This is where the Kellys made a life for their family.  Sons Brad and Mike live along the same road in which they grew up.  Richard talked about where each of his children and grandchildren lived just down the road from his home, which gives him a sense of comfort having family close by.

While farming in the mid-1980s, Richard and Esther Kelly along with a business partner named Larry Salge launched the first issue of the Fillmore County Journal.  According to archives of the newspaper, the date of the first publication was September 30, 1985.

“It was 16 pages and brought in $700 in revenue,” shared Richard.  He said they lost money and had to keep funding it to get it off the ground.  He talked about so many businesses that helped them get off their ground.  “Gehling Auction ran a ton of ads with us,” he said.  They were big supporters.

This was during a very tumultuous time with the economy.  In 1985, the farm crisis was hurting the agricultural economy.  In the first issue of the Fillmore County Journal, there was a full page ad for Gehling Auction advertising for a bankruptcy and repossession auction coming up on October 5.

The first issues of the Fillmore County Journal were in black and white.  By March 1986, they were introducing spot red color to advertisements for more attention.

After approximately one year in business, Larry Salge moved onto another venture, while Richard and Esther Kelly charged ahead.

For the Kellys, they had a continuous balancing act of keeping the farm going while also running the newspaper.  It didn’t come without financial challenges, but Richard says he never had any doubt he was going to make it work.

He would get up at 6 a.m. and work until 5 p.m. at the newspaper.  Then he’d come home, get a bite to eat, and hop in the tractor to farm until 2 a.m.  The next day, he would do it all over again.

By 1996, Richard felt he had accomplished everything he wanted to do with the newspaper.  At that time, the newspaper had gradually become two operations under one roof.  He had the newspaper and a commercial printing business.

One of their longtime employees, Pat Torgrimson, had been a layout designer with them for many years.  Her husband John had been writing for their newspaper, as well.

The Kellys came to an agreement with the Torgrimsons for a transition of ownership in the fall of 1996.

With the sale of the Journal to Torgrimsons, in 1997, Kelly Printing & Signs broke away from the newspaper to begin a new chapter up on the hill next to Preston Equipment.  That business has since grown by leaps and bounds currently staffed with eight employees.  Richard’s son Brad and his grandson Andy took over ownership of Kelly Printing & Signs a number of years ago.

Richard and Esther wanted to farm during a time when farming was challenging.  They launched a newspaper that was completely free to readers, an anomaly at the time.  They created jobs with each business venture, and they set up their successors with an outstanding reputation to carry them forward.  The Kellys had work ethic, determination, and they established great rapport with the community.  In this region, how you treat people is always important, especially when running a business.  Richard served the community as the Amherst Township treasurer for 28 years.  He also served as an active Preston Lions Club member for the betterment of the community.

For Richard and Esther Kelly, their legacy is a combination of everything that makes America an amazing place to live, work, and raise a family.

Continuing What Kellys Started

On the front page of the August 26, 1996, issue of the Fillmore County Journal, there was a special announcement about the transition of ownership from Richard and Esther Kelly to John and Pat Torgrimson to take effect on September 2.

In that announcement, Richard stated, “We believe that the Torgrimson’s are the right people to continue the tradition of the Journal as the major weekly newspaper in Fillmore County.”

According to the announcement, the Torgrimsons retained the 11 employees working at the Journal to keep the momentum going under their new ownership.

At that time, the circulation was 9,287 with an average page count of between 20 and 28 pages each week.

As we prepared for this section, I reached out to John and Pat Torgrimson.

“We moved from Hong Kong to rural Lanesboro in 1994 and Pat began working for our friends Richard and Esther Kelly as a graphic designer.  I was doing some consulting and, when not traveling, writing for the Journal, mainly county commissioners and feature stories,” explained John. “They were interested in selling the paper, and Pat and I decided to give it a try.”

During their time with the Journal, John said he enjoyed learning about the people and communities in Fillmore County.  “This is an amazing place with a distinct way of life and culture.  It was fun getting to know about who lives here and their connection to this place.”

Running any business comes with challenges, and John talked about the weekly publishing grind.  “You were tied to the business a bit like a dairy farmer who has to be home to milk the cows,” he said.  Right after you get one paper out, you’re getting ready for the next one.  “Pat and I were 20% of the staff and took separate vacations with their children, Neale and Emily, over the 13 years they owned and operated the Journal.

When it came time to sell, John and Pat wanted to get back to their roots in the non-profit sector.  “We also wanted to sell the paper at a time when we still cared about the product we put out every week and enjoyed coming to work,” he concluded.

Third Family Takes Ownership

My wife Amanda and I assumed ownership of the Fillmore County Journal in February 2009, with our first issue coming out on February 2.

We were in the throes of The Great Recession, and the economy was not looking good.  The auto industry was receiving bailouts and the real estate market was flooded with foreclosures.

Layoffs were announced daily, retirement plan nesteggs were plummeting in synchronicity with the stock market, and the banking industry was gearing up for a bumpy road ahead.

It was kind of a crazy time to be buying any business.

My wife Amanda had been an x-ray technician since graduating from college in Illinois.  She transferred to hospitals wherever I was transferred for my newspaper career in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.  While I started delivering newspapers for the Post-Bulletin when I was 10 years old, I didn’t officially start working as an employee of the P-B until I was 20.

Now at age 51, I’ve been in the industry for well over 30 years.  The first 14-plus years of my career were spent working for a large family-owned newspaper group spanning four states in the Midwest.  It was a great family to work for and I learned a lot about all aspects of the newspaper business.

Over the past 16-plus years, my wife and I have owned the Fillmore County Journal, bringing our children, Olivia and Landon, along for the ride.  In most any small town family-owned business in this area, you’ll find that the children of the owners have grown up at the business like a second home.  It’s the nature of the beast.

For our children, they started out getting the mail, delivering affidavit legal notices to the courthouse, cleaning the office, and filing paperwork.  Eventually, they gravitated toward graphic design, accounts receivable deposits, and advertising sales.

Amanda worked at the newspaper for the first three years while she kept her eyes open for an x-ray technician position at a local medical facility.  She landed a position at Mayo Clinic, and then eventually Olmsted Medical Center in Preston, Minn.

As the associate publisher, she continues to help me navigate important business decisions.

I have always felt that business ownership is either a burden or a privilege.  If you don’t enjoy the work you do, you’ll loathe going to work every day.  If you love the work you do, you’d come to work for free because you love it that much.

I consider owning and operating the Fillmore County Journal a privilege.  I actually get excited about all facets of the work we do on a regular basis.

I get excited about writing stories and capturing important moments to share with readers.  I love going from town to town to meet with business owners to hear about what’s happening in each community.  I enjoy delivering newspapers on Fridays when the truck arrives from the printer.  I have enjoyed the design side of the business, but I’ve also learned that our design team is far more talented than myself.  I enjoy discussing new ideas and watching those morph into whatever direction the team feels will make it the most successful.  And, this is what makes the newspaper such a special place to work.  We have an eclectic mix of talents and ideas coming together to make the newspaper what it becomes on a regular basis.  

At the end of the day, we know that the work we do really does matter to the people we serve.  With this in mind, we are humbled and grateful.  Thank you to all of our customers as we celebrate this milestone!