The Krier Kountry is a monthly, online newsletter that keeps residents of Kronau, Lajord and Richardson updated on everything from dog bylaws to babysitting services.

“It’s my first time advertising in the newsletter,” said Amy Schneider, whose Krier announcement helped her find some new clients before she shut down her child-care business.

“I have had the advertisement running for two months and got enough customers just by doing that.”

“The newsletter began in 1984 by volunteers who wrote stories for the community. They were a community college committee who helped small communities start newsletters, and that is how it began. A committee of four people who functioned as both editors and distributors. Their articles were from organizations such as Kronau Memorial Hall, the Kronau Curling Rink, and the Ladies club. Funding also came from these organizations through donations” said Ina Leippi.

Under Bylaw 2018-01, which are a Bylaw Respecting the Regulation and Control of Animals within the RM. An owner, possessor, harbourer of a dog shall not allow an animal to create a nuisance to any person by barking, howling, attempting to bite, or biting anyone or any domestic animal. Any owner, possessor, or harbourer who contravenes this section commits an offense under this bylaw and can be fined up to $2,000 (Krier Newsletter, 2021, p.19)

It was a monthly publication, so they could fund printing through advertisements people of the community and local businesses placed in the newsletter. They also had a local person in the community who had a printing company in Regina, who helped them print out hard copies of the newsletter. These old hard copies of the newsletter are currently at the Kronau Heritage Museum and can be accessed.

“This committee also provided a little phonebook with people who lived in these communities phone numbers, their business contacts, and so on, and it was published once every five years. However they could not keep up because of how the community increased, so now they use Facebook support groups” said Tracy Braer.

They currently have a committee of three executive positions: Chairperson- Tracy Braer, Secretary- Sandra Leippi, Treasurer- Wendy Wendle, and three non-executive positions, which are Editors, of which the Chief editor is Jenna Steranko, e-mail distributors, and then volunteers. There is an annual general meeting to elect executive positions and volunteers candidates.

The newsletters were distributed by printing and putting them in mailboxes free of charge and printing was funded by charging individuals and businesses to place advertisements.

Funds started to dwindle in July 2019 , they had to stop printing. This made them move to e-mail distribution and distribution lists, and all readers have to do now is subscribe; they also post the article on the Facebook community group.

Presently, advertisements in the newsletter are not paid for, but there are terms and conditions. These include sending the advert by the 20th of the month in either PDF or Word document; it must be proof checked for accuracy by the advertiser, like spellings, dates, and so on because the newsletter won’t be responsible for that.

“A means of gathering articles for the monthly newsletter is they ask people in either of the communities mentioned earlier to send in stories. They post this announcement on all the Facebook groups of these communities. The articles are sent to their mail and the editors’ work on them before they are posted” said Tracy Braer.

There are different readers of the newsletter. The first category is those who enjoy reading the newsletter monthly. Amy subscribed to the monthly subscription, and she gets the newsletter when it is released.

The second type of reader will be those who just use it for information. A Kronau Community Support and alerts group member, Emily Deck, “only looked at the newsletter for the first time in over a year. She only reads it when she needs to find out about something” .

The owners of businesses advertised in the newsletter also have different experiences in the increase of their reach. The businesses might even be in the same industry but have different results from the newsletter, in terms of patronage.

Owner of babysitting business Emily Snook, has had her advertisement in the newsletter since the summer of this year, and she said she has not had many customers reach out.

The second business is Home-based childcare owner; Amy who it was her first time advertising in the newsletter. She has gotten enough customers just by doing that.

This also shows how much influence the newsletter can have on the readers via these advertisements, to make them take a certain action or patronize a business.

The last thing, which is also very important to note is, the advertisements in the newsletter are not only limited to residents of Kronau, Lajord, or Richardson. It is also not limited to certain types of businesses, which makes it very inclusive.