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.
Beth McConnell
Publisher's Assistant
Beth was born and raised in Virden. Her family were active members of the community growing up, and although she moved away for a time after graduation, she knew that she wanted to raise her family here. Beth and her husband, who she has been married to for almost a decade, moved back about 10 years ago. Beth has two beautiful children and her family has two dogs and two cats. Beth is an lover of all animals. Beth has loved writing since she was a child. Beth believes kindness is what matters most and is planning to pour that into her work. When she got the job at the Virden Empire-Advance, her dad said, "About time you got a job in writing."
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.
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.
Born in Winnipeg, Lauren’s childhood was basically a tour of small-town living, moving everywhere from Beausejour to Nestor Falls—a tiny, fly-in fishing community in Northwestern Ontario. Thanks to her entrepreneurial parents moving wherever business took them, Lauren attended six different schools by the time she graduated, making her an absolute expert at adapting to new places. In 2010, the family business trail led Lauren and her parents to Virden, where she and her 6-year-old son reside with their three cats. She likes to say she’s an old soul who loves music, art, 'spooky' history, and animals. After spending half her life in the hospitality industry, being friendly and personable comes naturally. Lauren is now channeling those skills into a new career path at Virden Empire-Advance.
Office Assistant/Reporter
Lauren Halowaty
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.
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.
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.
Call
204-748-3931