Reflecting on a Quarter Century of Cattle Country

BY: ANGELA LOVELL

When Karen Emilson arrived at her job interview with a mock-up for a newspaper called it landed her the job as Communications Coordinator with the Manitoba Cattle Producers Association (now known publicly as Manitoba Beef Producers).

The reason? Her concept perfectly meshed with the what the organization was seeking – someone who could help develop strategies and resources to improve how it communicated with its members across the province.

Emilson, who had plenty of newspaper experience, set to work on the daunting task of creating a new newspaper from scratch.

“Because I had owned a newspaper (the Interlake Echo mailing permit through Canada Post and all the things you needed to know how to do,” she says. But priority number one was to attract advertisers. For the fi rst Cattle Country edition, which came out in regular columns.

“People loved it,” Emilson says. “When I went to events, I would take along copies of Cattle Country and sunrisecu.mb.ca