Echo Journal celebrates 10 years (2025)

The PineandLakes Echo Journal newspaper celebrates its 10th year since consolidating the Pine River Journal and Lake Country Echo weekly newspapers in September 2013.

"The Lake Country Echo and Pine River Journal were both award-winning newspapers with long histories of providing community coverage,” Publisher Pete Mohs said. “But with declining advertising revenue and rising production costs, we made the financial decision in 2013 to merge the two publications together.

“We were careful about putting two publications together, and hosted a series of public forums to explain the decision to key community leaders,” he said. “And the Echo Journal has been a success over the past 10 years."

The newspaper continues a mission started 88 years ago with the founding of the Pine River Journal and 51 years ago with the creation of the Country Echo.

Though the two newspapers - focusing on life and goings-on of Pine River and Pequot Lakes, respectively - no longer exist as independent newspapers, their values and goals continue with the staff of the Echo Journal.

Pine River Journal

The Pine River Journal started in 1935 under Grant Bergstrom in the basement of the Marlow Theater on Barclay Avenue, but the newspaper really came into its own after Clark Amy was hired as editor.

He and his wife, Amanda, later became co-publishers. They ran the newspaper until 1986.

"It was who they were," said their daughter, Allison Amy Stephens. "Mom was president of the Minnesota Press Women and the house was regularly filled with newspaper women. These were the pioneers of the significance of newspapers in the community and where we are today with newspapers."

Though both Amanda and Clark have since died, their daughter remembers the dedication they had to witnessing and reporting on their community's important moments.

To the Amy family, the local newspaper was and continues to be an important part of democracy. Stephens has on her couch, a pillow with a quote from Wendell Willkie that reads: "Freedom of the press is the staff of life for any vital democracy."

That quote summarizes what the Amy family saw as the newspaper's purpose.

"What is the role of the newspaper now? Now, many are on the vigil. They stand and watch to not let things be lost and swallowed up," Stephens said.

Though the Amy family has long since parted with the newspaper, those who came later continued their mission.

"It seriously makes me incredibly sad that smalltown newspapers are a rare thing anymore," said Christine Lupella, Pine River Journal editor from 1998-2005. "Smalltown papers were deeply connected to their communities in a way large news outlets today aren't.

“Local governments can make decisions in a vacuum — how will anyone know when the Pine River Depot is being condemned, or water rates are going up — before those things happen?” she said. “Or that your taxes are going up? (In other communities) there's no way to respond until those decisions have already been made.

“Where else will they see their kid's or neighbor's or friend's faces each week?” Lupella said. “That's why smalltown newspapers are important."

Lupella's successor, Kelly Virden, who served in the editor role until 2012, viewed her role similarly.

"I think local newspapers are so valuable to the communities they cover because of their hyper-local focus," Virden said. "There are many outlets for national and state news, but typically only a few for local coverage.

“In the pages of community newspapers you can see businesses open and close; milestones celebrated, local festivals, kids growing up through school and sports, local government and opportunities for the community to band together after fires and accidents,” she said. “What else so closely documents the goings-on of a small town?"

Country Echo

The Country Echo, Pequot Lakes' own newspaper, was the brainchild of three founders: Larry and Ray Glassman and Bill Walker. They immediately brought on Craig Nagel to be the newspaper's first editor in 1972.

The first issue was an exhausting ordeal, but the founders knew from the start that they wanted the newspaper to represent the nature-loving community around them.

"From the first issue (which proved to be a bleary-eyed all-nighter for all of us), we shared an ongoing excitement about producing something new and different," Nagel said. "We wanted the Echo to celebrate the natural beauty and uniqueness of the north woods and to offer readers articles and photos of real local interest. From the beginning, we chose to focus on ways to respect and protect the environment."

Nagel viewed the newspaper as an important part of documenting local history and informing the average person of the actions of the government and larger community and even the environment.

"I believe smalltown newspapers can — and should — play an important role in educating readers about the history and impact humans have had — and continue to have — upon this part of the world," Nagel said. "I think it is vitally important for the Echo Journal to help readers learn how to keep things clean and green and healthy."

Nagel's successors continued that mission, with editors Paul Thiede, Louis Hoglund, Peter Frank and Bryan Clapper all working for the community in what they considered a role vital enough to expand into a larger geography.

Hoglund said the goal was to make the newspaper into a "newspaper of the lakes."

"We felt that the community newspapers were important to the fabric of the communities, and we strived to serve even the many smaller communities, townships and neighborhoods — ranging from Jenkins to Crosslake, Ideal Corners to Backus to Manhattan Beach and Fifty Lakes," said Hoglund, who served as editor and then publisher from 1982-2004.

"Also, the cities of Lake Shore and East Gull Lake became important neighborhoods for us to serve and gain readership," he said.

Larger newspapers may appear more important, but they don't cover the goings-on that matter most to small towns. To leave those towns without a newspaper entirely would have been an injustice.

"Local journalism is incredibly important because no one else is covering the local issues that affect us most — school boards, city councils, county boards, etc.," Clapper wrote. "In places where local newspapers have shut down, citizens have lost a vital part of their community."

It is for that reason that by the time the Pine River Journal and Lake Country Echo were operating under the same umbrella, they covered a vast geographic area stretching from Hackensack to Nisswa and east to Crosslake.

PineandLakes Echo Journal

Responding to a changing digital landscape, the Pine River Journal and Lake Country Echo consolidated 10 years ago. Though much had changed over the combined 139 years of news coverage, the goal of the newspaper remains the same as it has always been.

Editor Nancy Vogt, who became editor of the Lake Country Echo in 2006 and the Pine River Journal after Virden left in 2012, oversaw the merger with Mohs and continues to espouse the values of her predecessors.

From the beginning, the Echo and the Journal have focused on local news, not something passed down from Minneapolis or something out of state.

"When I joined the Lake Country Echo in 2006, I loved that it was hyper-local, meaning every item in the newspaper was from the communities the Echo covered," Vogt said. "That holds true 17 years later in the Echo Journal."

Without that local focus, many stories would be missed, like the late Sen. Paul Wellstone's fatal airplane crash, which Clapper covered; or Denise Kaiser, who began running local 5Ks in her 60s when Virden was editor; or the story of Ray Hoover, World War II veteran who decided to share a long-hidden traumatic memory with Lupella; or the death of the last World War I veteran, which Hoglund turned from an obituary into a front page story.

The smalltown local newspapers immortalize these and countless other stories that would be otherwise lost.

"Smalltown newspapers remain important for both the important and the fluffy smalltown local news they deliver," Vogt said. "Where else can you read about happenings at your city council and school board meetings, or your high school athletic and fine arts teams? Most important, smalltown newspapers can be trusted to share facts through objective reporting."

Continuing that dedication to local coverage has been a huge priority for Mohs, who was publisher in the days before the consolidation and continues as publisher now for the PineandLakes Echo Journal and the Brainerd Dispatch.

Like Amanda Amy before him, Mohs has represented his industry on the state level. He continues to encourage newspapers under his supervision to carry on the ideals passed down by the industry's founders.

"Supporting local journalism is a top priority for myself and our staff. I was fortunate to serve as Minnesota Newspaper Association board president in 2014, and the organization worked with more than 300 newspapers of all sizes at that time," Mohs said. "I hope that all community newspapers can be successful because I understand the importance of providing important, accurate coverage each week."

Travis Grimler is a staff writer for the Pineandlakes Echo Journal weekly newspaper in Pequot Lakes/Pine River. He may be reached at 218-855-5853 or travis.grimler@pineandlakes.com.