Volume One: 20 years since its inaugural issue

Jul. 20—EAU CLAIRE — Nick Meyer felt like the Buddyrevelles, an indie-rock band that started in Eau Claire, was about to break big on the music scene in the early 2000s.

A fellow musician and fan of the band, Meyer had been trying to spread word about an upcoming performance, but couldn't get local news outlets to run an article he'd written about it.

That frustration helped lead him and a friend to create their own local magazine focused on arts, entertainment and culture in the Chippewa Valley.

"We needed another — something — to tell those stories," Meyer said.

At the time Meyer, then 22, was making TV commercials at Menards corporate headquarters in Eau Claire where he'd met Dale Karls. Among his duties, Karls worked on and designed the company newsletter.

Combining their skills and interests, the two wrote the first issue of local entertainment magazine Volume One. Within its pages were Meyer's article on the Buddyrevelles, coverage of a local poetry slam, some album reviews, a statement of the magazine's goals, a poem from a local author and cover art made by a local artist.

Using $700 pulled together from advertisers who were shown a sample of the first issue, the duo got 2,000 copies of the black-and-white magazine printed. They placed stacks of the free publication inside the front doors of businesses on Water Street and downtown Eau Claire.

It came out during March 2002, though you couldn't tell based on a copy Meyer still has handy of that inaugural one.

"There is no date on the first issue at all," he said, noting he wasn't sure if there'd be a second at the time.

But a second issue did follow three months later. A third came two months after that. And then it came out every month until April 2006 it increased to publishing every two weeks, adding color printing and a bigger tabloid-size style of paper.

It was fulfilling Meyer's vision of promoting the talent he'd seen among fellow musicians, creative writers and artists.

"I realized that really good creative output — music, arts, whatever — could come out of this town," he said.

Eventually the magazine broadened its scope to include writing on recreation, family activities, the outdoors and new developments in the Chippewa Valley.

Last week Volume One put out issue No. 453.

Meyer, now 43, still serves as owner and publisher, while Karls stepped away in the magazine's early years to pursue a different career, but the two remain friends.

It's been just over 20 years since Volume One began, an anniversary it is celebrating with a July 30 event at The Brewing Projekt, featuring five bands, food trucks, pinball and arcade games, lawn games and a separate play area for children.

More than a magazine

Since its inception, Volume One has grown beyond a magazine to become a multifaceted business that also sponsors events and sells local merchandise.

Summer 2005 marked the magazine's first foray into putting on events, starting with the Back Alley Summer Cinema Series. An older movie would be projected onto the back of a downtown building with the alley behind it creating an area where people could sit and watch on blankets and lawn chairs. While that event has gone by the wayside, others created by Volume One have endured.

In spring 2016, the opening of the city's Phoenix Park inspired Meyer to set a free spring concert series there, which has continued to this day as the Sounds Like Summer Concert Series.

Chalkfest, Restaurant Week, Food Truck Fridays, Winter After-Hours and other recurring events followed.

"They're an incredible ally in tourism and in general," Benny Anderson, executive director of Visit Eau Claire, said of Volume One.

The magazine's advocacy for Eau Claire as well as events it organizes have been beneficial to the city, he said.

For example, Anderson said Chalkfest — artists creating elaborate chalk designs on pavement, which will be happening this Saturday on the UW-Eau Claire campus — is among the events that the local convention and visitor bureau can market to tourists, which can lead them to extend their stay here.

"They are meant to be great for locals," Anderson said of Volume One's offerings, "but they have blossomed into events that we can promote to people coming into town as something additional to do."

Shop helps out

After starting out in rented office space on South Barstow Street, Volume One moved to 205 N. Dewey St. — a vintage downtown Eau Claire building that began its life in 1882 as a confectioner's shop — in June 2012.

The magazine occupies the second floor, but downstairs is The Local Store, a retail shop that Meyer also owns.

Among its offerings, the store carries a variety of apparel, games, books, locally-produced food, artwork and other merchandise. All of the inventory is either made regionally or evokes a sense of Wisconsin's Northwoods.

With the publication and retail operation under the same roof physically and financially, they are able to help each other out.

That relationship proved especially beneficial in getting the businesses through the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We got smacked hard," Meyer said. "Our revenue got decimated."

Events Volume One had planned as well as those that its advertisers had intended to promote in the magazine were cancelled, starting in spring 2020.

During the "stay-at-home" order early in the pandemic, the magazine's staff switched from their usual cultural writing to document how the community was responding to COVID-19.

For 1 1/2 years, the magazine had cut back from its twice-monthly publication to once every three weeks.

Meyer got help from pandemic-relief grant programs from the government and companies including Facebook and Google to help pay employees while the business' revenue stream was greatly reduced.

As with other "nonessential businesses," the Local Store was closed during the onset of the pandemic until government orders relaxed to the point where it could reopen.

But when pandemic precautions eased up, shoppers returned in large numbers.

"Our Christmas season of 2020 was the biggest we'd ever had," Meyer said.

And he said business has continued to be good for the store, which has helped out the magazine's financial picture as well.

He attributed the retail operation as helping Volume One come through the pandemic where other "alt-weekly" publications such as the City Pages in Minneapolis did not survive COVID-19.

Volume One also has a few other business ventures under its umbrella.

Those include a ticketing platform used by local restaurants, bars, churches and other places when they host musical acts or special events. Volume One also has its own video production services that have made commercials, recruiting videos and other promotional materials for local businesses and organizations.

Meyer's staff currently consists of 17 full-time employees and 10 part-timers for the magazine, the Local Store and the smaller ventures associated with them.