> TIP Online > Member Profile: Rick Anderson, The Midweek, Inc., Fergus Falls, MN, March 2008
Member Profile: Rick Anderson, The Midweek, Inc., Fergus Falls, MN, March 2008
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RICK ANDERSON
THE MIDWEEK, INC., FERGUS FALLS, MN
BY DWIGHT BITIKOFER
Fergus Falls, pop. 12,400, is on I-94 in west central Minnesota, about an hour southeast of Fargo, N.D. It is in Otter Tail County, a place that claims a thousand of the 10,000 lakes touted on Minnesota license plates.
The town celebrated its annual Frostbite Festival in February. Recreation, agriculture and light industry drive the town's economy. On the horizon is conversion of an outdated, architectural gem of a state hospital campus into an international cultural college.
Rick Anderson has been at the helm of The Midweek, Inc. since he purchased the fledgling company in 1980. Prior to that time, the Fergus Falls paper had been an outpost of sorts for the larger Midweek Publications in West Fargo, N.D.
Anderson had been a successful, young TV ad sales person and a protege of a television ad manager who subsequently pushed him out of that nest. After a frustrating stint as a floor covering sales rep, he found his way to Midweek Publications and from there to Fergus Falls.
Anderson was 26 years old when he purchased The Midweek in Fergus Falls. He and his wife had a year-and-a-half-old son in the summer of 1980 when they moved from their hometown of Moorhead, Minn. Interest rates were nearing 20 percent, and the daily paper in Fergus Falls was counting on him to fail.
Now, 28 years later, Midweek, Inc. publishes four papers - none of them in the middle of the week. "Once I was calling on Kmart in Chicago," said Anderson. "I was sitting down with four buyers. But then they said they couldn't do business with me because we came out in the middle of the week. I told them that wasn't true. In fact, I told them, I had been considering changing the name (of the flagship paper, then called The Midweek Shopping News). I picked up the phone and called the office right then and there. I told them to change the name effective that week to This Week Shopping News."
This Week Shopping News is a paper that circulates in Fergus Falls and communities within a 30-mile radius. Its 20,000 papers are distributed mostly by private carrier each weekend. The paper carries some community news, but publisher Anderson is considering a return to all advertising. The paper averages around 32 pages.
Heartland Shopping News is a 16-20 page shopper distributed across the state line in North Dakota. Wahpeton, N.D. and surrounding rural communities receive the 15,000-plus shoppers each weekend. Sixty percent of those are mailed.
Today's Lake & Home is a monthly real estate publication, 27,000 papers strong. Rack distribution and Midweek's private carrier delivery both are used for this publication that bulks up past 40 pages in the summer months.
Agri-Guide, an agricultural equipment guide, is published every other week and is distributed to farmers and ranchers in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, eastern Montana, and northwestern Iowa. Its distribution of 40,000 goes out in the mail. The usually-32-page publication highlights farm related classified and display advertising and auctions. It also includes several farm related stories. AgGuide is the online version of the publication.
Anderson said recent years have given the company a stable market without big swings up or big swings down. That allows him some flexibility.
"After this many years, my clients are my best friends," said Anderson. "My job is to keep customers in business, identify their needs and help fix their problems.
"I am not desk-bound," said Anderson. "I figure I should be the most dispensable person in the office. I have good managers - people who have been with me for 17 or 18 years."
A project that has been occupying a lot of Rick Anderson's time in recent months is his town's plan to create the Minnesota Institute for Cross-Cultural Studies.
The project began as brainstorming among community leaders about what to do with a fortress-like campus of architecturally significant, but out-dated, buildings of a state mental health hospital that was to be closed. The project has evolved to the creation of an international cultural college that will focus on international business and cross-cultural problem solving. The goal is for the college to open in the fall of 2009 with 500 Chinese and 500 U.S. students.
"I've always wanted to be the most anonymous person in town," said Anderson. "I have tried to stay off boards until this China thing."
Anderson has found himself as president and CEO of the Campus Development Group. Several trips to China have been involved, most recently in November of last year and February of this year. In April, a Chinese delegation from Hunan Province will be visiting Fergus Falls.
"This is like a new career," said Anderson, who is also studying Chinese.
Anderson credits IFPA with his longevity in business. He says he was most active in the association during his first 15 years of business. He is a former IFPA board member.
"IFPA people have done a great job of communicating the secrets of success," said Anderson.
The Midweek, Inc. uses the Circulation Verification Council audits and sends sales persons to IFPA boot camps. Anderson marvels at the number of independent publishers he has known in his career who have sold to larger media companies.
"You are always going to have a certain number of of people who have that independent streak," said Anderson. "I can't blame anyone for selling out, though."
Anderson has figured out how to have a successful business and not be tied to the office. He and Debra spend chunks of summer at their cabin on Otter Tail Lake, "23 minutes from the other office." From his lake office, Rick can catch walleye or small mouth bass for dinner or seek out some northern pike. Their three sons, Chris, Jon and Dan are all in their 20s. Middle son, Jon, has been in sales at the papers.
Every year Anderson makes a fly fishing trip to Alaska's Kenai Peninsula. He hunts pheasant in South Dakota in the fall. He takes his two dogs, a Brittany and an English Setter, hunting for ruffed grouse in Minnesota.
Anderson says the free paper business continues to evolve and change. It will still be a key component in the media mix. His company was a provider of Internet services for Fergus Falls and set up Web sites for many Fergus Falls businesses.
"The culture of having something in your hands to read isn't going to change anytime soon," said Anderson, who also says he needs to focus more energy on the Midweek Inc.'s Web business. "The disconnect is on the sales side. We need to adapt and a lot of papers have done it successfully."
Writer Dwight Bitikofer is an
IFPA director and publishes
Webster-Kirkwood Times and South County Times in suburban St. Louis
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