Empire-Advance
Serving Virden & area since 1885
Our Team.
The Empire-Advance has a remarkable team working towards bringing you the local news in our area. Serving Virden and area since 1885.
Ken & Christine Waddell
Publishers & owners
Ken and Christine have been involved with publishing full-time for nearly 35 years. Ken has an extensive background in agriculture and politics at all three levels of government. He and his wife Christine own the Neepawa Banner & Press and myWestman.ca.
They live in Neepawa, have two sons, four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Robin Wark
Sports Writer
Robin has contributed sports stories to the Virden Empire-Advance since 2005. He enjoys highlighting the accomplishments of the young people from the local area.
Robin works in marketing and communications. The married father of two's experience in newspapers includes past positions at the Minot Daily News, Valley City Times-Record, Sooke News Mirror, Westman Gazette, and Southwestern Gazette.
Anne Davison
Reporter
Anne has worked on the Empire-Advance team since 2009 reporting on events, writing human interest and business stories.
Educated at Brandon University, with a love for life-sciences, social sciences and philosophy Anne’s broad interests led her in the direction of General Studies.
Always a writer, sometimes a poet, agriculture is in Anne’s blood. A horsewoman, piano teacher and health nut, Anne is a lifelong learner.
Dianne Hanson
Sales
Dianne has been in the newspaper business for 20 years, joining the Empire Advance in 1997 after previously working for the Southwestern Gazette. She was in sales until becoming the general manager in 2010 and retired in 2014. In 2012, she was one of the recipients of Glacier Media’s President”s award for her commitment and outstanding achievement in their newspaper organization. After 10 years of retirement Dianne has returned part-time to join our team. She looks forward to reconnecting with all her customers and meeting new ones.
Jessica Coulter
Design, sales and media
Jessica has worked for the Rivers Banner since 2022 reporting on events, taking photos, creating the advertisements and laying out the paper each week. She is excited to do the same for the Empire-Advance.
Jessica has worked in business and marketing for over 20 years. She has a diploma in graphic design. She is all too happy to help design and create for all your print and online needs. Her goal is to make things beautiful.
Gerry Nolan
Writer and Deliveries
Gerry started by doing deliveries for The Rivers Banner and The Virden Empire advance in the rural communities from Rivers to Pipestone and the towns in between.
He enjoys meeting new people, playing pool and now is doing some writing and reporting for the paper which he really enjoys! He is always looking for new events to report on.
Oliver Nolan
Office Manager
Oliver has a keen interest in coding and the world of technology, inspiring to learn new coding languages and build connections.
Being from Virden, many people know Oliver and vice versa.
Oliver has plans to start his own coding company in the future. Oliver is considered to be ""tech savvy"" in his own right, with his experience in coding being a key factor to this. Oliver has also completed college courses in Interior Design via ACC.
Nancy Jo Moller
Publisher's Assistant
Originally from the Interlake region, agriculture has been part of everyday life. After marrying and relocating to the Neepawa area, farming continued as my focus.
We sold our farm and moved to the Virden area, where we are enjoying all the community has to offer.
I am very excited to join the team as Publisher's Assistant
Call
204-748-3931