ELY WEATHER

About us


Our history and mission

Hometown Focus (HTF) is a locally owned publication that celebrates life in northern Minnesota with positive local news and stories supplied mainly by community contributors. Our print edition is distributed weekly to hundreds of locations in Grand Rapids, Hibbing, Virginia, Hoyt Lakes, Cotton, Cook, Ely, and the communities in between. All content is provided for free in our multimedia network, which includes our website and the Discover MN app.
• Since our inception, over 1,100 local contributors from over 45 communities have shared positive news, personal stories, local history, recipes, events, photos, and videos.
• Hometown Focus gives everyone a chance to express themselves and find their inner storyteller.
• We were the first community-driven publication in Minnesota with free print, online, and mobile formats.

Brothers Jeff and Scott Asbach started Hometown Focus in September 2007 as a small business with big plans for the future. The Asbachs had worked in the newspaper industry for decades and sought to create a fresh, positive publication free of politics, crime, and divisive letters to the editor. Scott said his elevator speech about the brothers’ vision was, “This is going to be a community-driven newspaper by the community, for the community. There won’t be anything like it.”

Loyal advertisers (hundreds of them!) and home delivery subscriptions allow us to deliver content at no charge. Some advertisers even supported HTF before they fully understood what sets this publication apart from others.

“We have discovered that people appreciate a place to rest, relax, and be pleasantly surprised and entertained—a safe haven from the stress-riddled mainstream media. Our readers tell us that they’ve found that place in the pages of Hometown Focus.”
—Jean Cole, Hometown Focus editor (2007–2017)

Our audience

Broad distribution via print editions, our online and mobile presence, and our Facebook page reaches an audience of 200,000 throughout northern St. Louis County, eastern Itasca County, parts of Koochiching County, and beyond.
• We offer added value with our multiple distribution platforms: ads are automatically uploaded at no extra charge to HTF’s online and mobile editions. Plue, those ads provide easy access to your business profile and website.
• The Discover MN app has over 4,000 downloads, and statistics show over 20,000 monthly views.
• Interested in advertising with us? Learn more about benefits to your business or organization. Reach a new audience through multiple formats, all for the same price.

 

Contributors say…

One of my fox kit images is the cover of this week’s Hometown Focus. Being published on the cover of anything is always an honor. This is one of my favorite publications so it is a little more special.
Eric Sherman, Ely

Hometown Focus has adopted an innovative approach for newspaper stories that I love. The paper accepts stories from the public for publication. How exciting is that? To me, it is a winning approach for the paper and for the readers. It might not be necessary to be trained in writing, but it might be necessary for you to step out of your comfort zone to submit your first story and thus reap the rewards instead of reading others’ stories and thinking, “I wish I could do that.”
Debbie Lamphere, Hibbing

 

Readers say…

I feel that your print and online version provides the glue that ties together the Iron Range communities. It not only provides a diverse coverage of local news and feature articles but also includes stories about the courage and resiliency of the early settlers. I particularly like the Community Calendar that lets me know of interesting activities that I can attend.
Wilson Leong, Chisholm

When my doctor advised no daily newspapers, I agreed. Only the Sunday ones. Then I discovered Hometown Focus—perfect. Cheerful, local news and your column. Your [Kirsten Reichel’s] column on the “woes of the tell-tale tissue, and other aging stories” described what I and lots of other people are going through! Thanks for putting it in print.
Nola Caulkins, Virginia


HTF Staff

JEFF ASBACH: CEO & Co-founder

Our fearless leader brings 30++ years of newspaper industry experience to Hometown Focus. Jeff is the former general manager of Mesabi Daily News, where his expertise was in production and new technologies. He is the guy behind the scenes that makes everything work. A stickler for details, Jeff keeps everyone here on track.
jeffa@htfnews.us

SCOTT ASBACH: COO & Co-founder

Scott is the former Publisher of Mesabi Daily News, where he filled the shoes of his father, L. R. Asbach, before him. He also brings 30++ years of newspaper experience to our venture. Scott came up through advertising and marketing and has more ideas rolling around in his noggin than just about anyone. If anyone says, “We can’t do that” in a staff meeting, Scott gets very, very…determined. We’d worship the ground he walks on too, except, he doesn’t walk, he runs.
scotta@htfnews.us

 

CINDY KUJALA: HTF interim editor

Previously an HTF staff writer and editorial assistant (July 2012 – January 2017) and HTF editor (February 2017 – July 2020), Cindy retired after eight years with HTF. When her successor, Tucker Nelson (editor August 2020 – October 2022), moved on to work for North St. Louis County Habitat for Humanity, Cindy stepped in as interim editor while the search for HTF’s next editor is underway.

Submit editorial content to editor@htfnews.us or online at www.hometownfocus.us. Questions? Call Cindy Kujala, HTF interim editor, at 218-741-0106. Editorial submissions are due one week prior to publication (by Friday for the next Friday’s edition). Publication of editorial content is subject to space limitations. Include a contact name and telephone number with all editorial submissions to HTF.

JANNA GOERDT: Editorial assistant/staff writer

Janna Goerdt loves the written word, and she loves to play in the dirt. Now she gets to indulge both of those loves! Janna works part-time as an editorial assistant and staff writer at HTF, rejoining the staff after about a decade away. She also operates Fat Chicken Farm, a small organic vegetable farm in Embarrass, and mothers two twin boys. When she’s not weeding, feeding boys, or writing, she likes to prowl the new non-fiction shelf at the Virginia Public Library. And she is very happy whenever she can quietly canoe in the Pike River, which runs just a few yards away from her backyard.
janna@htfnews.us

MARCUS BUSTAMANTE: Graphic design

Graphic artist Marcus was born in England, and raised in the U.S. with an English-culture influence. You can catch him saying things like, “I don’t bloody know!” or spelling “favorite” the European way: “favourite.” He drinks enough tea that he figures it now runs in his veins.

An Air Force brat, Marcus has lived in more places than he can recall, but the Range has always been home base for him and is what he considers home.

Blissfully married on Halloween of 2010, Marcus says he finds life joyous with each day better than the last.

An art lover, Marcus works with metal and wood and also draws and paints. A perfectionist who obsesses over little details (a requirement for newspaper work), Marcus found graphic arts a good fit for himself, and he graduated from Mesabi Range College’s Graphic Arts program in 2014.
marcusb@htfnews.us

BOB HEDLUND: Graphic design
bob@htfnews.us

EVAN BURCHELL: Sales

Evan joined the HTF team after working in sales at Tradehome Shoes and as the manager at Pizza Hut in Virginia. He plays slow-pitch softball in summer and loves watching hockey, football, and baseball. Evan is an ambassador for the Laurentian Chamber of Commerce and can juggle objects as well as his sales clients. Administrative assistant Deb Carpenter says, “He’s a very happy guy.” Evan lives in Virginia with his wife, Mekeala, their daughter, Kinsley, and their dog, Milly.
evan@htfnews.us

JULIE ASBACH: Sales

Since Julie was 4 years old, ink has been coloring her life through her family’s involvement in the newspaper business. When she isn’t working with ad clients or spending time with her beloved dog, Bella, she is writing Healthy for Life, a regular HTF column for the past 14 years. She says, “I love learning new words or using words to create meaning or just to be silly. At my 6th grade banquet, my class predicted what I would be doing in my life when I was older and that I would be working at a newspaper writing a story about a burning school. This must be it!”
julie@htfnews.us

SUSAN FROEHLINGSDORF: Online multimedia & marketing strategy 

Sue comes from a family of business owners and entrepreneurs, and loves to think “out of the box.” She and her husband Joe started their first home-based business selling and servicing swimming pools in cold northern Minnesota. They were told the venture was “doomed to fail.” The business was 20 years old when a forced move by the Highway 53 relocation in Britt relocated the family to Zim.

It was then that Sue forged forward in website design, hosting and now developing apps for iPhone and Android mobile devices. Sue loves the challenge of staying on top of her game in a field that changes rapidly. At Hometown Focus, she loves spearheading our website and mobile app adventures. For Sue, the greatest reward is helping businesses progressively market their products and services.
suef@htfnews.us

DEB CARPENTER: Administrative assistant

Deb lives in rural Virginia with her husband. She has two daughters and seven grandchildren. One granddaughter, Adaylia (Addy) says, “We wouldn’t be our family without her.” She has held several administrative jobs, including 30 years at an oil company. She loves camping, gardening, and attending her grandchildren’s sporting events. Every year, Deb and her family rent the same cabin on Lake Vermilion for nine days.
debc@htfnews.us

VICKY JUNTUNEN: Business manager

Vicky is our business manager. This doesn’t even come close to encompassing the breadth of her responsibilities, which are too many to list, but sometimes includes balancing the personal checkbook of our Chief Financial Officer. So, basically, we think that means that Vicky is the real CFO around here; we’re not sure.

With almost as many years in the newspaper business as Scott and Jeff, Vicky is invaluable to the smooth operation of Hometown Focus. She is sometimes alternatively referred to as The Classified Queen, or Queen Victoria.

Vicky recently revealed to us during lunch in the break room that she is a former Cherry High School cheerleader. This ignited a spirited conversation among the staff that we are sorry cannot be repeated in this brief bio.
vickyj@htfnews.us

 

Read more about HTF’s origins and growth in these special anniversary editions!

 

Entrepreneurial Vision Award winners:

Jeff Asbach and Scott Asbach – Hometownfocus.us, Virginia, MN

www.umdced.com/labo/2009_Labo.pdf11

 

You’ve read our story—why don’t you share yours?

Check out this contributor guide to learn how you can be published, then submit your story, photo, recipe, video, or news article here.