Two great area weekly newspapers are becoming one!

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Big News!

September 26, 2013

Covering our communities for

decades

A better publicationBY PETE MOHS, PublisherI was being introduced as the new

publisher for Echo Publishing back in the spring of 2004 when a former Pine River Journal staff member sur-prised me with a question.

“When are you combin-ing our two newspapers?” the woman asked, referring to the Journal and the Lake Country Echo weeklies.

“Why would we do that?” was my response.

I’ve thought about that question over the years, and the idea started to make sense after talking with staff, and with many of our readers and advertisers. More and more factors indicated that a combined publica-tion would be a success. We also

had a handful of public meetings in the Pine River and Pequot Lakes communities to gain feedback.

The consolidation of Echo Publish-ing’s two weekly print products will become a reality with the debut of the pineandlakes Echo Journal on Sept. 26, 2013.

It will be one of the biggest chang-es in the 78-year history of the Pine River Journal and the 41-year history of the Lake Country Echo.

The weekly newspaper name fea-tures the familiar pineandlakes.com website name, which represents Pine River and Pequot Lakes. The legal name also includes the familiar Echo and Journal.

The combined newspaper will continue many editorial traditions and will include expanded editorial coverage and color photos, along

with a fresh page design while be-ing printed on the larger broadsheet

pages.The Echoland-Piper

Shopper, which began in 1975, will also be switched to broadsheet size starting Sept. 30, 2013. That change means an additional ex-pense of replacing our store copy racks, but electronic equipment will be used to

insert almost a dozen weekly ad-vertising fliers instead of doing the extensive and expensive work by hand inserting.

The combined newspaper publica-tion will make the weekly produc-tion more efficient. For example, our two papers recently covered a cross country meet and volleyball tourna-ment that included athletes from both Pequot Lakes and Pine River-Backus teams. Instead of writing two different stories for both publications, we would have one story. That allows additional time to possibly write an extra story – maybe a sidebar or column from the meet.

Speaking of sports coverage, the Patriots and Tigers will now have a section front as the schools will be featured on the first pages of the combined B section. The B section had primarily consisted of classified and legal advertising, which will now be the second half of the B section. The B section will also include golf and outdoors.

The A section will feature front-page coverage of the top stories from our expanded area, along with personality features on page 2, meet-ing, news, church and arts coverage for all of our communities. We will also have expanded editorial/opinion pages.

There’s great value in combining the two award-winning publications. We will be able to keep many old traditions while giving the new publi-cation a fresh look.

We hope the readers will appreci-ate the extra coverage, but I know communities are also sensitive about their hometown news.

Our editorial staff will pledge to cover all of our communities, but it won’t be 50/50 between Lake Country Echo and Pine River Journal coverage. That’s because the Echo averaged 24 pages in the A sec-tion while the Journal averaged 12. We also have more communities to cover with the Echo.

The feedback was positive as we heard examples of readers from one publication having an interest in the other since they had family members or friends from those communities or they once lived in the other publica-tion area.

I’ve also received feedback from other weekly newspaper publishers and editors that I’ve met with as a current board member for the Min-nesota Newspaper Association. Some of them have combined publications, and were successful with quality coverage of all communities.

I realize both communities would like to have their exclusive news-papers, but the readers will gain an increase in news and sports cover-age and opinion columns, and also advertisements.

The changes will make the Echo Publishing operation more efficient, but will also result in a better prod-uct for our readers. Please be patient with our changes, but we also wel-come additional feedback.

It will be one of the biggest changes in the 78-year history

BY NANCY VOGT, EditorWhen I became editor of the Pine

River Journal last December, one thought became increasingly ap-parent with each passing week: a combined Lake Country Echo and Pine River Journal newspaper would make so much more sense.

That idea will become real-ity Thursday, Sept. 26, with the first issue of the pinean-dlakes Echo Journal newspa-per - featuring a combined Lake Country Echo and Pine River Journal weekly newspaper in broad-sheet, rather than tab-size, format (the size of most newspapers like The Brainerd Dispatch, Minneapolis Star Tribune, St. Paul Pioneer Press or USA Today.)

The idea has been percolating among Echo Publishing management for quite a while for many different reasons, including financial. As edi-tor, my reasoning comes purely from the news angle.

At an average of 12 pages each week, it’s often difficult, if not impossible, to cram into the Jour-nal all the news stories and photos we have. As the person who most often checks three separate email accounts, I see first-hand the dupli-cation of news items we receive for inclusion in both newspapers.

When we shared the idea of combining the newspapers into one publication with our Advisory Board several months ago, we asked each board member to look at both news-papers really closely. Some who subscribed to the Echo had never seen the Journal, and vice versa.

We were happy to hear very few, if any, negative reactions to our idea. In fact, some Echo readers said they didn¹t realize what the Pine River area offered and they thought they’d be more likely to check out those communities. And some Journal readers said the same about Nisswa, Crosslake and other “Echo” com-munities.

Another Advisory Board member lives in Pequot Lakes but grew up in Pine River, and she still loves to read Pine River news.

The cities are a mere 10 miles apart; it seems senseless to use the

Cass-Crow Wing County line as a news bound-ary so Echo readers don’t read about what happens north of Jenkins, and Journal readers don’t read about happenings south of Jenkins.

It became increasingly apparent that a combined newspa-per is a win-win for both readers and advertisers alike.

That said, it isn¹t a decision we’ve taken lightly. The Pine River Journal has a deep history in that com-munity, going back to when it was launched in March 1935. Despite changes in ownership and style over the years, that 78 1/2 -year history is nothing to just brush aside.

The Lake Country Echo was founded in February 1972 and has its own 41 1/2-year history in the Pequot Lakes area.

As the saying goes, nothing changes if nothing changes. The newspaper business has expanded far beyond the printed product, and even beyond the online product. Our business is surging forward into the technological world of iPads, iPhones and other mobile devices.

The time has come for that evolu-tion to include a merger of our two area weekly newspapers.

So what does that mean?Basically, subscribers and others

who pick up our newspapers will see more news and advertising from a broader range of communities. We¹ve tweaked our design and can¹t wait to share our creative style.

I’ll still be editor and Pete Mohs will still be publisher. Kate Perkins and Travis Grimler will still be our staff writers.

We’ll function as has been nor-mal since February 2012 with our production and main offices at the

Brainerd Dispatch, our sister news-paper under Morris Communica-tions. Our office in Pequot Lakes will continue to be open from 8 a.m. to noon Monday-Friday, and often into the afternoons, for those customers who still want face-to-face contact without driving to or calling the Brainerd Dispatch.

Most important, we’ll continue to cover and report the news and events of Pequot Lakes, Pine River,

Backus, Breezy Point, Crosslake, Em-ily, Fifty Lakes, Hackensack, Jenkins, Lake Shore, Manhattan Beach, Mer-rifield and Nisswa. As we’ve always done, our staff will determine the importance of news and publish it accordingly.

We have no plans to abandon any of the communities we’ve tradition-ally covered.

Current Echo subscribers will see Pine River-Backus High School sports coverage, and Journal sub-scribers will see Pequot Lakes High School sports coverage, including Athletes of the Week from both schools.

Journal subscribers will get recipe columns. Echo readers will get the popular Last Windrow column by John Wetrosky that runs in the Jour-nal. On the flip side, Journal readers will see Craig Nagel’s Cracker Barrel column as well as political columns by Pete Abler and Don Bye that run in the Echo.

As always, we welcome feed-back, whether it’s praise, criticism or questions. You’ll find our contact information on page 5 of the Lake Country Echo and page 4 of the Pine River Journal.

Changes make sense

A combined news-paper is a win-win

for both readers and advertisers alike.

Craig NagelCraig Nagal was the first Lake Coun-try Echo editor. He went on to become an author, writing books inspired by his popular column called The Cracker Barrel in the Lake Country Echo.

Pequot offiCeOn a weekday morning in Pequot Lakes you can still find The Lake Country Echo office open, but the majority of production is now done at the Brainerd Dispatch office - also part of Morris Communications.

the first PriNtToday this building is labeled G&S Plants. However in 1935 as the Marlow Theatre, it housed the very first produc-tion of the Pine River Journal.

advertisiNgA 1942 Red Owl ad printed in the Pine River Journal.

the CombiNatioNOn Sept. 26, 2013 The Lake Country Echo and the Pine River Journal will merge. Nancy Vogt will continue as editor of the newly combined publication, which will be more efficient and offer readers more information.

Side notes

The Pine River Journal got its start in 1935 when publisher Grant Berg-

strom launched the premiere issue of the weekly newspa-per from the basement of the Marlow Theatre (where G&S Plants is today) on Barclay Avenue in downtown Pine River.

Two year suspensionBergstrom continued publishing

the newspaper until 1944, when he entered the U.S. Navy and tempo-rarily suspended publication. In February 1946, the newspaper re-sumed printing.

The AmysClark Amy was hired as editor of

the Pine River Journal in September 1946. Clark and Amanda Amy were married in 1948, and eventually be-came co-publishers.

In 1951, the Journal moved to its last location on Norway Avenue. The Amys eventually purchased it in 1961. The Amys handled all the duties of a newspaper.

Clark ran the presses and wrote columns while Amanda reported the news from the school board to the city council and sold advertising.

The Journal was a family busi-

ness – with Clark and Amanda and the help of children Ken Cronk, We-nonah (Cronk) Smith, Alison (Amy) Stephens and Steven Amy.

Ken began working for the Pine River Journal in 1949 when he was in high school helping with print-ing and type setting. At that time the Journal was located in the basement of the Marlow Theater.

He worked at the Journal until January of 1952 when he entered the Air Force. Ken served 20 years in the Air Force before returning in February 1973 in time to help pub-lish the Pine River Centennial issue. He spent about three more months working at the Journal before taking subsequent publishing jobs at the Perham Enterprise Bulletin and the Lake Country News Chronicle in Two Harbors before retiring.

A growing Pine River Journal family

Wenonah started at the Journal in

1974 and worked until November 1999.

Initially she did advertising sales, then helped put ads together, and finally was front office manager do-ing bookkeeping, taking classified ads, answering phones and helping customers. She got to know a lot of people in town and they knew her.

Wenonah’s daughter, Elizabeth “Betty” Danzik, began working at the Journal as a freshman in high school and continued working for 3-4 years after graduation.

Wenonah’s son, Bryan Nagy, did on-the-job training at the Jour-nal during his senior year of high school.

Alison began spending time at the Journal when she was 7 and was a regular fixture there helping out from when she was 12 until she left for college.

OperationsKen, Wenonah and Alison all re-

member the days of the Linotype

machine at the Journal. The Lino-type had 90 keys and cast individ-ual characters into a complete line of type, which was referred to as a slug. Those lines of type were set and eventually inked to produce a printed page.

The Journal had two job presses for small printing orders. A large newspaper press printed the news-paper – often taking all night to print. The pages had to be hand-folded and the folders were often working until 3 or 4 a.m. to finish the job. The business also had a 14- and 8-point ball typewriter.

Switching gearsDue to poor health, Clark retired

on March 14, 1974, and Amanda assumed the role of editor. Clark passed away in May 1986. Amanda continued the business until Octo-ber 1988, when she sold to Keith and Martha Anderson, owners of Echo Publishing and Printing in Pe-quot Lakes. Amanda passed away in June 2008.

The Journal office in Pine Riv-er was closed in 2012, although the weekly newspaper, and the Echoland/Piper Shopper, continue as weekly publications. Business for Echo Publishing continues at the Pequot Lakes office and also at The Brainerd Dispatch, which is also owned by Morris Communications.

Chris Lupella was editor until 2005 then Kelly Virden took on the position until November of 2012. Nancy Vogt from Lake Country Echo stepped in and is now dual editor of both the Echo and Journal publications.

The Lake Coun-try Echo has seen a handful of owners and unimaginable

changes in technology, but the weekly newspaper that first published in 1972 has al-ways had the same mission: to provide quality local news and advertising for its read-ers.

Getting startedOn March 2, 1972, the first news-

paper was published, though it was called the Country Echo then. Three men - brothers Larry and Ray Glass-man, as well as Bill Walker, all im-migrants from Illinois - founded Country Printing in 1972. Their in-tention was to start a free distribution shopper featuring advertising.

However, mailing costs were pro-hibitive, so they changed direction to publish a newspaper to take advan-tage of second class mailing rates. That’s when Craig Nagel came on board as the Echo’s first editor, start-ing the newspaper from scratch. Na-gel and Walker were friends in col-lege, and Walker knew Nagel had co-edited their college newspaper and had a journalism background.

An illegal operationAfter starting the newspaper, the

businessmen learned it was illegal to use their government-backed Small

Business Administration loan to fi-nance a newspaper. So the Country Echo moved to a building that stood where the Pequot Lakes Post Office lot is now, while Country Printing remained at its West Lake Street lo-cation.

Nagel bought out the Glassmanns’ shares in the Echo and after reset-ting the loan, the whole operation moved to West Lake Street.

Country Printing eventually start-ed a shopper, so duties included writing and editing stories, selling ads, print jobs and running the print shop.

In the early days, the Country Echo was printed in house and a copy cost just 10 cents.

Before the first edition went to press, Craig asked his wife, Claire, to draw a logo. Claire hand-drew the letters and added an outline of a loon, which Craig then fell in love with. The typeface has changed, but the logo still features a loon.

First of its typeNagel believes the Echo was one

of the first newspapers in Minnesota to switch from hot linotype to com-puter-generated type. Craig was also

told that it was the first time a news-paper featured a loon as their logo.

Craig’s brother, Dick, now a Span-ish teacher at Pequot Lakes High School, moved to Pequot Lakes in 1974 to help Craig edit the newspa-per. He helped out for about a year. Craig said Dick was instrumental in the Echo surviving and growing. Later, Paul Thiede came aboard as an investor and took over as editor.

The Lake Country Echo added a free publication in 1975, the Echoland Shopper. It was first print-ed on yellow paper, with the late Ron Foss selling advertising for 37 years.

In 1977 the owners sold Coun-try Printing to Bob Francis of Palm Beach, Fla., with the agreement that Craig stay on to manage the busi-ness. Francis owned the business for about a year, then Andy Andolshek of Crosslake bought it, again with the understanding that Craig would manage it.

The addition of the Pine River Journal

In September 1980, Keith and Martha Anderson bought the busi-ness and proceeded to upgrade its

printing equipment and expand the reach of its publications. The Ander-sons added the word “Lake” to the newspaper’s name, so it became the Lake Country Echo. And Country Printing became Echo Publishing & Printing. The Andersons also bought the Pine River Journal in 1988.

Craig left the business soon af-ter the Andersons bought it. Keith was publisher who wrote a popular column, Off the Top, and Martha did the office work. The Ander-sons hired Lou Hoglund as editor in 1982.

Selling the businessKeith and Martha lived in Pequot

Lakes and retired in 1995, when their son, Peter, became publisher/owner. He sold the business in 1999 to the current owners, Morris Com-munications of Augusta, Ga. Most recently, the newspaper is printed at the Brainerd Dispatch.

“The newspaper of the lakes” is what The Lake Country Echo would become because of its large circula-tion area. It’s the hometown publica-tion for not only Pequot Lakes, but also Nisswa, Breezy Point, Cross-lake, Ideal Corners, Lake Shore, Mission area, the Gull area and the Whitefish area.

TodayPete Mohs, publisher since 2004

says that “the Lake Country Echo staff continue the tradition of hard work and passionate local coverage”

Nancy Vogt has been editor since 2006 and currently serves as editor for both the Lake Country Echo and Pine River Journal and

WebsiteIn 2004 Echo added itsonline component, pineandlakes.com. For more information on this see page 4.

pineandlakes.com

Looking back over the years

shoPPer suCCessThe Echoland was combined with the Piper shop-per (Pine River) in 2008 and continues to be a success in the lakes area, often having more than a dozen ad-vertising inserts in a weekly edition. The shopper circula-tion averages 21,000 copies from the Brainerd/Baxter area to Walker.

The Pine River Journal building on Norway Avenue.

The Echo Publishing building on West Lake Street in Pequot Lakes.

Echo Publishing PublisherPete Mohs General & Administrative Joni VolklNews/Online Becca ClemensNewsNancy VogtKate Perkins Travis GrimlerCreative Angie HoefsNews/Design Marcy NickelTracy WallinAdvertising Kathy Bittner LeeJonalyn BrzinskiConnie Iverson

DE Media Staff who are involved in EchoPublication Operationsand production.

PublisherTim BogenschutzGeneral & AdministrativeKari AlcockKari LakeTerry McCollough Mindy OlsonGina RudolphTiffany SmithAnn WindorskiAdvertisingSusie Alters Phil Seibel

John BennettAshly JohnsonKelly KragnessMarva PearsonGlen SantiSarah SchultzCarla StaffonJill WassonDavid WentzelMarketingJessica VealetzekLisa HenryCreative ServicesAndy GobleCindy SpilmanSue StarkInformation TechnologyJason WalkowiakNewsKeith HansenMichael Aulie Mike BialkaMatt EricksonJan FingerDelynn HowardKelly HumphreySteve KohlsJessica LarsenJonah LazerineJoseph LindholmJeremy MillsopSarah Nelson KatzenbergerDenton Newman Mike O’RourkeRenee RichardsonJennifer StockingerShelly SummerBob Wallenius

Press ProductionDianna BlanckDarin YoungDavid BadeDarren BeachMarty ChisholmJeff DummerAdam GilsonShawn HessJeremy LemoineAndrew PuckoRodney SwansonBradley WillemsenCirculationJohn GaglianoScott GomonJason AllordCharles BlumeBlenda HagbergAmanda JohnstonGregory LambrechtSabrina OgbornDistributionJamie OlsonMason AllordRoy BanksTimothy BautchEmily CoghlinJennifer DobsonZachery LemoineCharles MarshallKathryn OlsonDavid ParkerBrock ReynoldsPete SchuldheiszDavid SimsLeann SobaniaRyan VanHornTyler Willemsen

Did you know?DIGITAL

pineandlakes.com

We’ve had page views every month for the

last 14 months from all 50 states!Averaging 145,000 page views per month and 22,000 monthly visitors.

pineandlakes.com has a weekly ques-tion that you can partici-pate in and see what others said.

Special publications are also available online. Check archived editions and enjoy

easy scrolling and page turning.

Log on to see our ever-popular photo gal-leries. Upload your own photos and share

them with the community.

The Echoland-Piper Shopper is also viewable online at pineandlakes.com!

Download our FREE mobile app for access at the tap of a finger.

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An award-winning company

“The Echo staff continues the tradition of hard work and passionate local coverage.” ~ Pete Mohs, Publisher

Thank you to our staff

We have proven that we are not only a hometown newspaper with the best local coverage, but also a multimedia powerhouse complete with cutting edge digital products and services.

RECENT MINNESOTA NEwSPAPER ASSOCIATION AwARDS:

2013First Place - Feature Photo, Kate PerkinsThird Place - General Reporting, Lake Country EchoThird Place - General Excellence, Pine River Journal

2012 Third Place - Human Interest Story, Pete Mohs

2011First Place - General Reporting, Lake Country EchoSecond Place - Columnist, Katie AndersonSecond Place - General Excellence, Lake Country Echo

2009 First Place - Use of Photography, Pine River Journal

2008 Second Place - Best Use of Website, Echo Publishing

2007 Second Place - Advertising Excellence, Lake Country Echo

2006 Third Place - Advertising Excellence , Lake Country Echo

2005 Second Place - Community Leadership, Pine River Journal

2004 Second Place - Typography & Design, Lake Country Echo