By Jason Sethre
Publisher
Fillmore County Journal
jason@fillmorecountyjournal.com
There was a subtle change on today’s front page.
In the dateline, we turned the dial up to Volume 40, Issue 1.
Every year, in the month of September, this newspaper becomes one year older.
This is a big deal for many reasons.
Back in 1985, when Larry Salge along with Richard and Esther Kelly launched this newspaper, they took a chance. A big chance.
They started this thing from scratch, and any start-up is a gamble.
The Fillmore County Journal started with coverage of the 1985 Fillmore County Fair and then progressed into a fall sports preview section. On September 30, 1985, a 16 page newspaper was born and delivered to households throughout the region. It was black and white, which was common with all newspapers back in the mid-1980s.
Since then, with advancements in technology, the newspaper has changed with the times.
No matter how much things have changed over 40 years, the important ingredients of success have stayed the same.
This newspaper is locally-owned, and always has been. From 1985 to 1997, it was owned by Richard and Esther Kelly. From 1997 to 2009, it was owned by John and Patricia Torgrimson. From 2009 to date, it has been owned by my wife (Amanda) and myself. Local ownership matters, and not just for newspapers. When any business goes from local ownership to a distant corporate ownership, the community loses a connection. We are proud to be locally-owned, and we greatly appreciate working with so many locally-owned businesses in the region. I was recently visiting with a business owner 60 miles north of Preston, and she shared how disappointed their community was with their local newspaper. She grew up in that town and remembered when their hometown newspaper was outstanding. However, now that it was owned by a corporation, they had reporters from Arizona covering their community. She said names were spelled incorrectly and there were always errors in that newspaper.
We have roughly 40 people working for this newspaper, covering meetings, sharing stories, editing, taking pictures, designing and selling ads. It’s a team effort, for sure. There are some newspapers, namely corporate-owned, that outsource their ad design to agencies located in India. All in the name of increasing profits. But what does that do to the local economy when you outsource? Our staff members living and working in Mower, Fillmore, Houston and Winneshiek Counties spend money at the local grocery stores, gas stations, restaurants, and retail shops. They pay local taxes and support our local schools.
Having local people living and working among the people we serve helps us stay connected in so many ways. All of our team members are hearing story ideas from people in our community on a regular basis. This is wonderful! This is what makes us a community newspaper.
At the end of the day, running a good quality newspaper (or any business, for that matter) is always about the people.
It’s always about the people. It’s about our employees, our readers, and our advertisers. It’s about our community, as a whole.
Over the course of the next 12 months, we look forward to celebrating 40 years of success with our readers and advertisers.
Stay tuned as we turn up the volume.