One Man Show

A typical Wednesday for Randy Olson begins at the printer. One particular Wednesday morning, his newspapers were late. There was a delay at the printer.

“It really doesn’t matter what the problem was. My papers weren’t ready,” Olson said. “That set me off about 40 minutes.”

For Olson, every minute of every day counts. As publisher, editor, reporter, photographer, layout editor, advertising manager and circulation director for the Bonanza Valley Voice in Brooten, Minn., Olson is the only employee at the weekly paper.

Last November, Olson decided to purchase the Valley Voice because he wanted to stay in town and be his own boss. He previously worked at the Sauk Centre (Minn.) Herald as a staff reporter for nearly four years.

When Olson left the printer that Wednesday he rushed back to his office, dropped off newspapers at the post office for readers and divided up newsstand copies to deliver around town. While delivering the newspapers, Olson stopped to photograph a community event taking place. He then uploaded the local high school spring concert photos he had reported on earlier. While the photos were uploading, Olson worked on deposits and advertising checks.

“It’s just go, go, go, go, go,” said Olson. “(But) I don’t see it as work. I enjoy it.”

When E&P spoke with Olson he had just completed issue 15 of the Valley Voice. Since purchasing the paper, Olson said advertising has continued to increase and circulation has grown to 815 subscribers, increasing circulation by 20 percent in the four-and-a-half months he has been printing.

“The first three (issues), advertising was a little lean,” Olson said. “But by four, five and six, my advertising was strong.”

However, while Olson has experienced more success than he expected early on, his greatest challenge has been finding balance between trying to grow the newspaper, but also not letting it grow it too fast.

While Olson does work with one freelancer, who covers the Brooten city council meetings, he doesn’t plan on hiring more employees right now, saying he wants to get a few more months under his belt before expanding the newspaper.

Because being the only employee of a newspaper doesn’t leave much time for anything else, Olson said he has to force himself to create free time.

“Generally in any spare time, I have to refocus my attention from what I can be doing to make my business better, bigger and more profitable,” Olson said. “But right now, it’s going pretty well the way I’m doing it.”