Nesbitt Publishing Ltd.

Crossroads This Week, with its office located in Shoal Lake, is the oldest continuous business entity in the community, having been in operation for over 125 years. W.A. Myers published the first issue of the Shoal Lake Star on May 25, 1889. The newspaper continued under the name “Star” until end of 2001. On Jan. 12, 2002, The Star was merged with the Birtle Eye-Witness, Hamiota Echo and Shoal Lake Star to form a regional community newspaper called Crossroads This Week. Myers was the publisher of the newspaper until the first issue in January 1907 when it was leased to R.J. Widdicombe, who had been in charge of the newspaper for the prior three years. The newspaper changed hands on Dec. 12, 1910 when H.J. Newman purchased it from A. Dickson. Newman lasted until 1913 when the newspaper was purchased by local investors, with M.C. Markle as acting editor. In 1915, the public was notified that as a three-month experiment, William Stone, an experienced editor and printer from Rapid City, would operate The Star. Elgin Hurst began working alongside Stone at the newspaper in 1927, with printing done on a press at the Minnedosa Tribune. On Oct. 4, 1945, it was announced that R.J. Sanderson, who owned the Minnedosa Tribune, had purchased The Star from Stone, and that Hurst, who had just returned from serving five years in the Canadian Army, would be the editor. This arrangement continued for less than a year. An announcement was made that effective Aug. 1, 1946, Hurst had purchased The Star from Sanderson. Printing would continue at Minnedosa for the time being. For six issues in the early part of 1975 The Star was not published due to the illness of Hurst. The paper was sold to Al Jackson of Brandon, who published his first issue on March 13, 1975. Jackson continued to publish the paper until the end of December 1976, when he sold The Star to Greg Nesbitt of Shoal Lake. Nesbitt, who had just turned 19 at the time of the purchase, published his first issue in January 1977. He had worked part-time alongside Hurst during his high school years. Nesbitt continued to add newspapers to the company – Nesbitt Publishing Ltd. – as they become available, purchasing the Rossburn Review from Harry and Helen Aylwin in 1979, the Birtle Eye-Witness from Pat Robertson in 1984, and the Hamiota Echo, which had been in the Venables family for years, in 1992. On Jan. 12, 2002, the Birtle, Hamiota, Rossburn and Shoal Lake newspapers were merged into one regional publication called Crossroads This Week. In the spring of 2007, the company purchased the monthly South Mountain Press from Cate Watrous of Erickson. The community newspaper, which serves the Erickson, Onanole, Sandy Lake and Elphinstone areas, was revamped and began weekly publication on June 2. Through the years there have been many changes in the newspaper business. It was reported that fire destroyed the newspaper office in 1921. The paper, which was once printed on presses in Minnedosa, was printed in-house until 1980 when the move was made to “offset” printing. Up until that point the paper was produced using a linotype to create slugs of text. Individual letters of type of various sizes were handset to create advertisements. The lines of type were combined into a form to create a page that was put on a hand-fed platen press that printed two newspaper pages at once. In 1980, computerized typesetting equipment was purchased and the paper began printing at the Brandon Sun. This allowed for color advertising and a larger page count. Over the years the latest technological advances were added ranging from fax machines, to high-speed internet, to state-of-the-art Apple computer systems. The newspaper moved from printing on the press at the Brandon Sun to the Dauphin Herald, and then to its current printer, Struth Publishing Ltd. in Killarney. Nesbitt Publishing Ltd. currently has a full-time staff of six – Greg Nesbitt, Ryan Nesbitt, Darrell Nesbitt, Michelle Gensiorek, Connie Kay and Marcie Harrison, and three part-time mailroom personnel. The newspapers rely on several dedicated freelance writers and photographers, along with several district correspondents.