'Every woman has a story:' Minnesota Women's Press founder, editor reflect on 40 years

NINA MOINI: 40 years ago today, the first issue of a new bi-weekly newspaper went out across the Twin Cities. The idea was to share stories about women, by women, for women. Minnesota Women's Press is now a monthly magazine that is published online and stocked at more than 360 businesses across the state. Mollie Hoban is one of its founders and joins us on the line. Thanks for being here, Mollie.

MOLLIE HOBAN: Thank you. It's great to talk with you.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, thank you so much. And joining us in the studio, we're very happy to have the current owner and editor of the magazine, Mikki Morrisette. Thank you for being here as well, Mikki.

MIKKI MORRISETTE: Thank you.

NINA MOINI: Mikki and Mollie!

MIKKI MORRISETTE: Mikki and Mollie.

NINA MOINI: Perfect!

MOLLIE HOBAN: Hi, howdy.

MIKKI MORRISETTE: Nice to hear you, Mollie.

NINA MOINI: Oh, well, it's great to have both of you here, because it's a real perspective from the very beginnings 40 years ago. And so much has grown and changed. Mollie, I would love to start with you. So April 1985-- which actually doesn't sound that long ago. [LAUGHS] It's hard to believe that's 40 years now. But what was going on leading up to that first issue? How were you feeling then?

MOLLIE HOBAN: Well, you know, that was the-- we were in the midst of Reaganomics. And there was a pretty conservative tinge to the culture. And it was also, however, a time when there were lots of publications of various kinds in the Twin Cities, free distribution publications that you could pick up. And there were also lots of women-oriented publications around the country as a result of the second wave of feminism and all the good work they'd done.

But I was so frustrated seeing that there was never-- or hardly ever-- news about women in the news. The news was always about men and what men were doing. And that just was-- didn't seem right at all. I was taking some classes in feminist studies and literature and thinking a lot about the ways over the years women's voices had been silenced.

So I was thinking, boy-- and I had a little background in journalism, so I was thinking, maybe we could start our own newspaper. We need a newspaper that will be about women, as you said. And I talked to my good friend Glenda, and we grabbed some people together and started planning. We spent a year planning.

And in that time, I met with a lot of people in the communications industry in the Twin Cities. And everyone said, kind of with a pat on my head, what a nice idea, but it'll never work. So I like to keep that in mind. [LAUGHS]

NINA MOINI: Yeah. Why is that not surprising? But you sure proved them wrong, 40 years later. So Mikki, you bought Minnesota Women's Press. That was 2017-ish. You took over as editor, 2018. And oh my gosh, today is your birthday, as well as the magazine's? Happy birthday to you!

MIKKI MORRISETTE: Thank you. Yes, I love that coincidence. It's great.

NINA MOINI: That's beautiful! So what made you jump in?

MIKKI MORRISETTE: Well, a little bit of politics, as well. It was not that long after Trump had been elected the first time when Mollie-- well, Mollie and Glenda had passed it on to Kathy and Norma. They'd been running it for at least 20 years. They were ready to retire. Although for them, that doesn't mean retire, retire.

NINA MOINI: Right.

MIKKI MORRISETTE: I think Kathy's on a bike adventure trip right now. But they were ready to step away. And I'd been writing for them as a freelancer for at least a decade after I moved back from New York City. And decided it was not time to let a feminist publication die. And I don't know much about running a business, but I know a lot about content.

So I stepped up and they sold the publication to me. And we managed through the pandemic and a couple other things. So here we still are, 40 years today.

NINA MOINI: Amazing. And the landscape has changed so much, as you both talked about-- local news, resources there. What has it been like, Mikki, just keeping up with the changes? Do you feel like the core of the mission is still something people are seeking out?

MIKKI MORRISETTE: Yeah. Actually, our numbers are up by 10,000 online since last year alone. So a lot of that is driven by the politics. One of our biggest numbers lately was just a photo gallery of the April 5 protests, and a couple commentaries lately. So the core has not always just simply been about politics and social justice, though that's a big part of the mission.

But it has been about, as Mollie said, centering the stories of what we call powerful, everyday women. It's everyday women that are doing all kinds of things in their communities, and they get overlooked. And as Mollie also said, way back when, it was kind of relegated to the lifestyle pages. But women are a lot busier than that. And so we're still telling those stories. And we've been proud of the fact that we do focus on some legislative leaders, but really it's women in their own communities.

We just had a long conversation down in Winona with 20 amazing people about what they're doing related to housing. We've had a lot of great conversations related to gender-based violence. There's a lot of things that have not changed over the decades. But there's still really powerful women working on them.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. Mollie, you gave us an "mm-hmm." What are your reflections there on what Mikki's saying?

MOLLIE HOBAN: I was mm-hmm-ing about the fact that a lot hasn't changed, and remembering 40 years ago that we thought, we won't need to do this newspaper too long. We'll do the right stuff and people will change. And of course, that hasn't happened. And the issues that are important to pay attention to continue to be the same. And the fact of the newspaper, and now the magazine, has always been about everyday women and the heroes that all of us can be.

When we started the paper, the very first issue-- and every issue for decades-- the front page had a profile of a woman. And it was never, or almost never, a woman that other people had heard of. It wasn't a profile of famous and the celebrities. And we just picked kind of randomly.

And we believed every woman has a story. And if you can talk to people and get connected with them, you learn wonderful stories. And those stories are newsworthy. They're not just fluff. Those are part of the news. And it's so wonderful that Kathy and Norma, and now Mikki, each in their own ways, have continued and expanded and enriched that whole perspective, in a way of thinking about news and thinking about the women of Minnesota and what they're accomplishing.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. I want to ask you both, but I'll start with you, Mollie, what are you proudest of when you think back on the last 40 years? Was there a topic? You mentioned a lot of the topics continue throughout society. But what just kind of makes your heart really happy?

MOLLIE HOBAN: What really makes-- and I'm speaking for Glenda Martin, as well, who was the-- she and I were the co-publishers. What makes me happy, and her, and so grateful is to have been able to create something that's meaningful, that has offered and continues to offer meaningful work to a number of women, that was trying to make a difference in the world, and for ourselves personally, that we were able to create a life's work that is still ongoing, and that gave us so much and connected us with so many amazing women in Minnesota.

NINA MOINI: What about you, Mikki?

MIKKI MORRISETTE: Yeah, I would-- I reflect back. As you said, it's my birthday, which reminds me, every year seems to get better. I also feel the same way about the magazine. I feel-- we just this morning actually closed the May issue. And I'm so proud of that issue. I would say the thing that I'm most proud of is something we just did last month, because it's the latest thing.

Patricia Torres Ray, the former senator, has been a real big supporter of ours. She connected us with Unidos, which is working especially with immigrant organizations around the state on trainings. They asked us to do a 28-page bilingual magazine about constitutional rights. I interviewed an immigrant attorney and Rabbi Marcia Zimmerman about working through fear in solidarity with others.

And that issue is now making its way. It's going to get over to the capitol today. And I'm really pleased that they thought of us as the vehicle and the platform that they trusted. And we've had that with a lot of different community members lately, as we talk about housing, gender-based violence, caregiving needs, et cetera.

So I'm proud of the trust that the brand has around the state. And we're trying to expand that. Because still, there's a lot of people that don't know about it. And people do feel isolated, especially outside of the Twin Cities, trying to do movements. But there's great orgs out there. Indivisible is another one we're working with. We have a big celebration coming up May 1, and so we're bringing all of them together.

NINA MOINI: Cool. Well, happy birthday, Mikki. Mikki and Mollie, I appreciate both of you so much. And it's so funny. You were talking about extraordinary, everyday women. And I certainly consider both of you among them. So thank you so much for your time.

MIKKI MORRISETTE: Thank you.

MOLLIE HOBAN: Thank you for your interest, yeah. Happy birthday, Mikki.

MIKKI MORRISETTE: Thank you! See you in a few weeks.

NINA MOINI: That's Mikki Morrisette, editor and owner of Minnesota Women's Press, and Mollie Hobin, one of its founders.