Johnson starts Your County News to reach community

The Austin Daily Herald’s news editor Katie Johnson took on a challenging project last fall when the Herald launched Your County News, a weekly rack-distributed paper available in four different southern Minnesota counties.

Johnson is the Your County News editor and balances her time with that publication, her daily pagination duties, as well as her writing and editing assignments.

Your County News and the Austin Daily Herald provides Austin Newspapers Inc. a one, two punch in an effort to provide the most important local stories and information to as many households as possible.

“Your County News gives rural residents and their communities a voice that may not be reached sometimes by other publications,” Johnson said. “Our staff has been working to develop connections in the towns of Blooming Prairie, Brownsdale, Dexter, Grand Meadow, Hayfield, Sargeant and Waltham. We are receiving excellent feedback about the quality of our publication, and we are excited to continue growing Your County News.”

Your County News ranges in size from 12 to 20 pages, is free and has a major emphasis on community briefs, community calendar items, obituaries and local columnists. Human interest stories and hard-news articles round out the coverage, along with sports, education and a listing of local churches.

Johnson is a 2004 graduate of Minnesota State University Moorhead and has worked at the Park Rapids Enterprise in Park Rapids, Minn. and the High Plains Reader in Fargo, N.D.