(5/12/2021)
And they said it wouldn’t last. Fifty years ago, a dynamic and idealistic young couple thought that there was room in Winona for two newspapers. The pair, who were both gifted writers with strong opinions, created the Winona Shopper and unleashed it on the Winona trade area. The first issue on November 3, 1971, featured a musician banging a bass drum on the cover, and the fledgling paper made a lot of noise during the first few months of its existence, even though it dared to compete with the powerful entrenched force that was the Winona Daily News in those days. That was the Christmas season, and almost everybody was able to find some extra budget to try out the new kids in the market. Fran and John Edstrom took a deep breath and relaxed. This was going to be a piece of cake. Then January hit, and the bus on the way to prosperity town came to a screeching halt. As John was often heard to remark later: “If it was easy, everybody would have done