REGINA – Bed and breakfasts, tea houses, antique outlets and gardening stores are some of the aspects of prairie living to be found in a new bi-monthly publication, the Country Register.
“The focus is on interesting, unique things on the Prairies,” said publisher Scott Kearns, who co-owns the newspaper with his wife Marjorie.
“We want to provide an affordable way for small companies to promote themselves to an outside geographic area.”
The paper is based in Kipling, Sask., where the Kearns are shareholders in the local weekly newspaper. They distribute 14,000 copies of the Country Register to advertisers, tourism outlets, craft stores and hotel lobbies in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The first issue featured stories on craft stores, quilting, scrapbooking and bed and breakfast etiquette.
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The Country Register is part of a network of similar publications that began in 1998 in Phoenix, Arizona. Today, different licensed versions of the publication can be found in more than 40 states. It is also published in Alberta, Ontario and British Columbia.
The idea was presented to the Kearns by Bob Flindall, a former Presbyterian minister in Kipling, who now acts as a salesperson for the Ontario version. While attending a church reunion, Flindall gave the publication to the Kearns and encouraged them to establish a Saskatchewan-Manitoba edition.
“We really didn’t bother to do a lot of research,” Scott said.
“We just decided to jump in with both feet.”
He hopes the newspaper will become self-sufficient in about a year.
