Kansas Publishing Ventures LLC
South Central Kansas
When Joey and Lindsey Young purchased Lindsey’s hometown paper, The Clarion in Andale, KS, they were young — 27 and fresh from a handful of years in community papers. However, they soon caught the attention of Joel Klaasen, who then owned Kansas Publishing Ventures. After earning Joel’s trust over many lunches, they bought his company, including the Hillsboro
(KS) Free Press and a book publishing company. Fast-forward a few years and probably more than a few late nights, Kansas Publishing Ventures covers three bordering counties in southcentral Kansas — Harvey, Marion and Mcpherson. They have four weekly newspapers, a book publishing company, a custom printing and promotional products business and a tech services division.
Serving their communities and making connections is what drives everyone at Kansas Publishing Ventures. Joey Young said, “We often have ‘Beer Friday,’ around 3:45 to 4 p.m., once people are mostly done for the week, we crack a cool one, bullshit and talk about ideas. Sometimes people from the community come by and join us.” It was one of those sessions that birthed the “Blues, Brews and Barbecue” event that now draws over 1,000 people annually for three bands, lots of craft beer (including the event beer, “Off the Record Ale,” brewed in conjunction with a local brewery) and food trucks.
Hosting forums for their community to get to know the local candidates has been another way to connect and give voice to community concerns.
“The community needs to know their candidates for public office, so we set up an evening for them to meet them, hear their off-the-cuff answers to questions and hear a properly moderated event by Adam Strunk, our editor,” said Young. If people in the community can’t attend, they always have a reporter who covers the event like any news story, and the coverage is printed online and in the paper.
COVID really hit them hard – shutting down their offices and handing them a 40% decrease in revenue at its worst. Still, innovation kept them going. They gave away advertising to local businesses who were hurting — free listings for new hours, doing only online business, instore pick-up — whatever they could do to help their community to weather the pain. They asked companies who weren’t as affected by the pandemic to sponsor the listings if they could, and lawyers and remote businesses stepped up to help their neighbors. For Young, this was putting their mission into action, “We are a small business in this community just like they are, and we wanted to show we had their backs.”
Even though the communities they support are small, Kansas Publishing Ventures is growing. They have grown Harvey County Now to 4,000 subscribers with a hard paywall. They are now focusing on growing the Mcpherson News-ledger from its circulation of 1,700. The Hillsboro Free Press is a free paper that delivers to approximately 5,500 by mail and carrier in Marion County. They also rack copies in bulk in areas of the county where it doesn’t make sense to mail. They have websites and a social media presence, but they focus on engagement and conversion to paid readers. “We have walked neighborhoods as a staff to sample the paper and encourage signups. Everyone is in circulation, from reporters to ad sales to the publisher. If someone wants to sign up for the paper, we drop what we are doing and help,” stated Young.