FREDERIC – As the only cooperative-owned newspapers in Wisconsin, the (Frederic) Inter-County Leader and (Shell Lake) Washburn County Register see their unique business model as integral to their legacy and future, staff writer Danielle Danford wrote this week.
Founded in 1933 by farmers with a need for local news during the Great Depression, the Inter-County Cooperative Publishing Association celebrated the newspapers’ cooperative model this week in recognition of National Co-Op Month. In addition to the two weeklies, ICCPA publishes five shoppers each week, for a total of more than 700,000 papers printed each month.
Bennie Bye, the cooperative’s first newspaper editor, explained the model in the first edition of the Leader.
“The principal way in which we expect to make this paper different from the common run of papers is that we are in business for service and not for profit and intend to carry the truth to the public regardless of whose toes get pinched.”
The co-op also operates a commercial printing department and three business locations in Frederic, Siren and Shell Lake, which offer office supplies and convenient access to the co-op’s services. ICCPA employs about 60 people with an annual payroll of more than $1.5 million.
As a co-op, ICCPA differentiates itself from the private business model through profit sharing. During years in which the co-op makes a profit, co-op members, employees and patrons each receive a share of the profits.
