Joey Young is the majority owner of Kansas Publishing Ventures (KPV), a company that directs the publication of three weekly newspapers: The Clarion, Harvey County Now, and the Hillsboro Free Press. KPV also hosts a yearly concert in Newton: Blues, Brews, and Barbeque; has a third-party IT service, operates a custom printing and promotional products division called ZenPrint, and also is a book broker. We recently started a new membership model in Harvey County called Press Club. KPV is also the owner of Earn Your Press Pass, a journalism training program developed by my wife Lindsey Young in 2022.

My wife Lindsey and I purchased our first newspaper, The Clarion, in June 2012 at the age of 27 and I was then the youngest newspaper owner in the state.

After a complete redesign, The Clarion saw growth and took the first-place editorial sweepstakes award in its division at the 2014 Kansas Press Association convention. Then again in 2015 and 2016.

Shortly after purchasing The Clarion, we took over controlling interest in Kansas Publishing Ventures from Joel Klaassen and merged that company with our own in April of 2014.

The only traditional college education I received was at Hutchinson Community College, where I participated in the journalism program. I graduated and then went to work for Reeves Media at the Harvey County Independent. After a little over a year, I was transferred to The Clarion as the managing editor when Reeves Media purchased that newspaper. I spent two years there before taking a job at the Hutchinson News where I worked on the design desk. After another two years in Hutchinson, I missed the do-it-all world of weekly journalism and purchased The Clarion from Reeves.

In 2018 KPV purchased the rest of Reeves newspapers, The Hesston Record, Harvey County Independent, and The Ledger. They combined The Ledger with a push into McPherson and called the paper the McPherson News-Ledger.  It was sold in February of 2023 so the company could focus on it’s other properties. In March of 2020 they combined Newton Now with the other county weeklies, Harvey County Independent and Hesston Record, and rebranded into Harvey County Now creating a comprehensive county weekly newspaper.

In my personal life, I am married to Lindsey (Miller) Young, who helps with the business operations of the company and is the best copy editor in existence, and we have a dog named K.C. When we are not working, we enjoy cooking together, sports, and a good craft beer or bourbon.

Along with being a past Kansas Press Association board member (President in 2020 of all years), I am active in the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors, several chambers of commerce, the K-96 Corridor Association, and I bowl in league once a week in Newton.

I have spoken in several professional capacities including at the Kansas Press Association Annual Convention, Texas Center for Community Journalism, Kansas Collegiate Media Convention, Mid-America Newspaper Convention, KU Journalism School, Wichita Society of Professional Communicators, and for several local groups in South Central Kansas who are a gluten for punishment. To book me for something hit me at: joey@kspublishingventures.com.

Recently, I was featured in Editor and Publisher’s 25 Under 35 in their April 2020 edition. https://www.editorandpublisher.com/feature/25-under-35-meet-the-rising-stars-in-todays-news-industry/

In 2022, KPV was featured as one of Editor and Publisher’s 10-News Publishers That Do It Right:
https://www.editorandpublisher.com/stories/10-news-publishers-that-do-it-right,219623?newsletter=219852

Finally,  a few links below go to two talks Lindsey did for Talk20Hutch (we are both originally from Reno County). Lindsey is a former public speaking teacher and competed at nationals in Forensics and Debate in college all four years. She loves speaking, so this was a good outlet for her back in our hometown.  The first one is right after we purchased The Clarion and started the now-defunct Maize Free Press (the story is here). The next one is an update six years later. It is a good summary of why we do what we do.