Currents
Springfield woman starts magazine
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Edell Fiedler is the founder and editor of Midwest Mix Magazine. John Cross
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The July/August issue featured poet Phil Bryant on the cover.
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The September/October issue features artist Cam Johnson.
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Fiedler, an MSU graduate, publishes art magazines
SPRINGFIELD — So often with features in magazines and newspapers in smaller markets, stories come to the writers.
People who want to be written about often are. People who’d rather stay under the radar often do — simply because a handful of writers are responsible for writing about an entire community. And they can’t know everybody.
Edell Fiedler of rural Springfield started a publication with the opposite idea in mind: to find that hidden talent and share it with the community. There is a wealth of untapped artists, writers, musicians and restaurants out there in an under-covered arts and entertainment scene, she said. Hence, Midwest Mix Magazine was founded, with Fiedler at the helm as editor. The first 32-page, full-color issue came out July 1.
“(The arts) is a genre that has seemingly lost its place on the map in our region,” Fiedler wrote in the inaugural issue. “It’s time to put it back on the map ... .”
Fiedler majored in mass communications at Minnesota State University with a double focus in news editorial and public relations. As her career bloomed, she gained experience in both fields. She worked at the Sleepy Eye Herald Dispatch and contributed to Static magazine, as well as becoming managing editor of Centered magazine, which Static evolved into.
She also worked for five years as the public information assistant for the city of Mankato before moving on to be a senior communications coordinator in the hog industry, her final position before beginning Midwest Mix.
Fiedler had always dreamed of starting a magazine. But being granted the time to actually make it happen wasn’t her choice. Hard economic times hit the hog industry, and Fiedler was one of many employees to be laid off in December 2008.
With a family to help support, the news wasn’t great. But thanks to her husband’s job with Harvest Land in Springfield and help from her family, Fiedler saw the free time as an opportunity and got to work on a new venture, working on the magazine from her home.
Fiedler utilized resources from her editorial experience — Wes and Kristi Schuck, former owners of Static and Centered, and writers she knew — to bounce ideas off of and get to the bottom of what was missing in arts coverage. The result of her research and collaboration with Corporate Graphics, as well as paid contributions from writers, resulted in the inaugural issue, which featured poet Phil Bryant on the cover. Blues musician Brandon Scott Sellner, artists Eileen Hines and Joellen Preston, and a getaway story about Fieldstone Vineyards in Morgan also were featured.
Feedback has been positive, Fiedler said. A reader outside Bliss Java had good things to say, but he wondered if now was a good time to be starting a magazine.
“I like what she’s doing,” said Jon Andrews. “But the media doesn’t seem to be faring well.”
Fiedler is well aware of the state of the industry, even addressing it in her “From the Editor” section of the July/August issue. She knows the magazine might not succeed. But she hopes to eventually turn a profit through advertising revenue. The magazine is free to the public.
“It’s still kind of scary to me,” she said. “It’s amazing just to get the first one out.”
She’s taking it issue by issue, and if all else fails, she said, she may turn the publication into an online-only one.
“We’ll see where the magazine goes from here,” she said.
For now, Fiedler’s looking forward to the release of the second issue for September/October, which will come out Sept. 1 in select cities and will feature artist Cam Johnson on the cover. She hopes to tap a variety of artistic genres in each issue.
Sara Gilbert Frederick, a Mankato freelance writer for various publications, including The Free Press, will have a story in the September/October issue. As someone who has been involved in a variety of regional publications, Frederick has a broad perspective on what’s being covered and what isn’t.
So far, she likes Fiedler’s ideas.
“I think it is a nice addition to what’s currently available,” she said, stating restaurant reviews as one example. “It takes what a daily newspaper can do one step further.”
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