Your West Central Voice celebrates its 2nd anniversary
By Joan Janzen
July 6, 2022, marked the second anniversary of publication for Your West Central Voice. Kate Winquist, the Publisher/Editor, published the first edition of the paper on July 6, 2020, and has been forging ahead ever since.
It all began in May of 2020 when Kate began planning to begin a publication in Kindersley. When asked why she decided to start a new business venture during Covid, she explained that she took advantage of the opportunity which presented itself because she believed this area deserved to have a print newspaper. Kate was no stranger to the area, having been born and raised on a farm near Glidden and receiving her education in Kindersley.
On July 1, 2020, she and her daughter moved from Gull Lake to Kindersley, with her husband and eldest son joining them by the end of the year. She discovered the pandemic served to present an advantage for the paper. “There weren’t many events to cover, so it was easier to focus on personal stories, which was accepted by the community.”
She estimated she would need five hundred subscribers to make a go of it and had almost three hundred subscribers before the first issue was printed. “By the time Christmas came around, I already had close to nine hundred subscribers,” she explained.
Working on a deadline always presents challenges, which eventually resulted in the publication date being changed from Monday to Tuesday. There was the added challenge of letting people know there was a new publication in town. “The response has been very positive right from the start,” Kate observed. “And we’ve grown, which allowed me to hire Joan, and we’ll have another new employee starting in August.”
Within six months of starting the publication, Kate accepted the opportunity to take on the Oyen Echo when the owner retired. Also, in the summer of 2021, she was approached by Harland Lesyk regarding taking over the Weekly Bean and the Kerrobert Chronicle.
“We worked out an agreement,” she said, with Harland continuing to work for me making contract sales. The Kerrobert Chronicle was transformed into an actual weekly newspaper and is sent to 1900 households. “It’s been quite well received,” Kate said.
Subscribers of the publications often send letters of appreciation for a family newspaper that always includes something to brighten their day. “We always appreciate having people let us know what’s going on in the community,” Kate said.
After all her hard work, Kate is ready for a holiday, as the paper will take a break for two weeks until the August 2nd edition. She’s looking forward to providing advertising opportunities for businesses and interesting weekly content for readers in the future.
