The Rural Voice, 2000-06, Page 43r
1
farming community.
Gunby, a potter from
Hamilton, who moved with her
husband Merle to Huron
County to raise pigs in 1970,
got involved when she was
writing the newsletter page for
the Huron County Federation
of Agriculture. As a member of
the advisory board she worked
on doing the layout of the
magazine. Eventually as White
began to figure out the various
talents of her advisory board
she would send them out to do
reporting. Originally, the
advisory board meetings held in
Seaforth were for the advisory
members to do proofreading and
layout of the publication.
Gisele, Ireland, the most popular
columnist for The Rural Voice over
the years, started covering farm
issues for the publication, under
Susan White, which didn't last very
long, said Ireland, because she put
her humour and sarcasm in the
articles. In later years, around 1985,
it was decided that her wit could be
better put to better use as a
columnist. Often, she recalls, she and
Adrian would butt heads on issues
with opposing viewpoints and
readers would write in to say which
columnist they agreed with. The
most feedback she has received from
a column was last year when she
wrote a non-humourous column
about the hog crisis and how it
reminded her of her family losing
their hog operation in the '80s.
Over the years readers of The
Rural Voice have watched Ireland's
family grow up and move out,
grandkids being born and changes in
their farming operation. What strikes
readers the most is how much Gisele
is jut like them. She said they will
write or phone her and ask if she was
sitting at their table. "If the column
has served a purpose I hope it has
lifted people's spirits in tough times
to look on the bright side. Some of
the more sarcastically funny columns
were written during the tough times
we were going through in our own
operation," said Ireland.
After a couple of years of owning
The Rural Voice, McLean Brothers
Publishers wanted to sell the
magazine. McLean knowing of
Gunby and Brown's dedication to the
Retired now and
'4raising exotic i4Td _-
birds, Adrian {
Vos was the
most
controversial of - ti
the magazine's
columnists.
publication through their work on the
advisory board offered to sell the
magazine to them for $1. Gunby
credits the McLean Brothers for
giving them the chance to make a go
of the magazine. When they first took
over, Gunby recalls, they had nothing
except for a filing cabinet full of
information that the McLeans
supplied them with. The office for
The Rural Voice moved to the second
floor of the Gunby household in
Ashfield Twp. near Dungannon.
While Gunby and Bev Brown
owned the magazine,
Gunby was the editor and
Brown, with no prior sales
experience, was out on the road
selling ads. Both women had moved
from the city just 10 years earlier to
farm. "Everyone who worked on it
was committed to making it a go. A
lot of good people were involved,"
said Gunby, despite the fact it didn't
pay so well.
When Sheila and Bev bought the
magazine it was just a tiny 36 -page
magazine. Within a few months the
dynamic duo of Sheila and Bev took
the magazine to 90 pages. "Sheila
was a very, very good editor and had
good contacts and ideas and all I had
to do was to get on the road and get
the ads," said Brown. Her secret to
success in selling advertisements for
The Rural Voice in Huron, Perth,
Grey and Bruce Counties was in
what she wore.
"A lot depends on what you wear,
it blew my mind when I caught onto
it," said Brown. "When I wore my
red hat I made sales, men love hats
and flirt with women in hats," she
said. She had two hats, one for winter
,, and one for summer and would carry
them in the backseat of her car then
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JUNE 2000 39