Joyce Webster

Coleen Campbell presents Joyce Webster with her CCNA Silver Quill award for 25 years of service or longer in the weekly newspaper business on September 17, 2006.

I have the great pleasure of presenting Joyce Webster, owner of the Coronation Review, with her well-deserved Silver Quill.

You always hear about people in this great industry who have ink in their veins. Well, Joyce is a farm girl and rancher and is the owner of a quarter-section of land in Coronation. Is it ink in her veins or … something else?

Twenty-five years ago, once her older boys were settled into grade school, Joyce decided to get off the farm in search for an additional challenge. One of the few jobs available back then was an opening at the Coronation Review as a typesetter, bookkeeper and receptionist.

Knowing how to type, plus having done the farm books and of course, being able to talk on the phone, Joyce figured this job would be a good start to pass the time while her boys were in school.

She was hired for the job and continued to work in this position until 1985 when the owners approached her about buying the paper. At first Joyce figured all she could do was type, answer phones and record numbers. She couldn’t possibly run a business and a newspaper business at that. Or could she?

With her sense of adventure, and a little fear, she took up the challenge and has never looked back. In her first year of owning the Review, Joyce increased sales by 38% and circulation was up 21% within the first five years.

Since then she has continued to increase the size of her business adding a Regional product. It started out as a quarterly product in 1996 and has grown into a twice a month publication.

Almost immediately after purchasing the newspaper, Joyce was elected to the AWNA board of directors and remained on the board until 2005. During that time she served as corporate secretary, chairman of the membership committee, chairman of the membership review committee which was instrumental in setting out the guidelines for all member papers, guidelines we still use today. She was also a member of the executive committee and was elected president of the association in 1990.

In 1996, Joyce was elected to the CCNA board of directors. While on the board she served on many committees including convention committees and the VC committee. From 1998 she was on the executive committee and became president in 2003. She was past-president and chairman of the CCNA board from 2004 to 2005.

In 2004 when her term as president with CCNA came to an end, Joyce received her Gold Quill award. She is one of a very few who have received a Gold Quill before she received her Silver one.

Despite her involvement in the associations, Joyce’s paper has continued to win editorial awards including the best local editorial award three years in a row. Her paper has also won several general excellence and individual awards over the years.

Joyce herself was honoured in 1997 with the AWNA “Bill Draayer Award” for outstanding personal contribution to the progress and development of the Alberta Weekly Newspaper Association.

Joyce has not only been busy with association business, she has also kept very busy in her community. She was a member of the Coronation Economic Development Board, president of the Coronation and District Chamber of Commerce and a member since 1985, chairman of the Tourism Action Committee, president of the Castor Rising Stars Toastmasters Club, and a member of Coronation & District Health Care Complex Foundation board, Battle River Tourist Association and the Coronation and District Historical Society.

Joyce and a friend also spearheaded the "Ladies' Night Out" in her community and together they have raised close to $20,000 for local community projects.

And she still had time to be a Laybencher with the Alberta Law Society for six years and was an appointed member of the RCMP Complaints Commission for another six years.

She shares all of this and more with her partner, Tracy, and their four boys, Brady, Jordan, Colin and Nolan.

Joyce may not have started out in this industry with ink in her veins, but what there is now is much better -- dedication, enthusiasm, commitment, eagerness and devotion to this great industry.

Thank you, Joyce.