Ken Kellar

Bringing you the local news.

Ken is the owner and editor of the Woodsboro-Walkersville Times, which is a local newspaper established in 2013. They cover events and history  for the greater Woodsboro-Walkersville area and have a direct mailing of over 7500 copies a month.

The Woodsboro-Walkersville Times is fully funded by our advertising sponsors. To view past editions or advertising opportunities visit https://www.woodsborotimes.com/

Question and Answer Session

For our Q&A session, our current members submit questions to ask the member of the month. They are a mix of business, personal and random questions.

WBPA:  How would you describe life in (Walkersville, Woodsboro, Glade Valley)?

Ken Kellar:  “You can make it anything you want. You can live here peacefully and just sleep here in between commutes or you can get really involved. Tons of churches, recreational activities, sports coaching opportunities, local government (run for office, serve on a committee, or just go to the meetings), clubs (history, friends of the library, scouts) and a city with good restaurants and some theater life.”

WBPA: When did you move to the Walkersville area? What made this area a good choice for you?

Ken Kellar:  “When I got a job in Montgomery County I drove north until prices dropped enough that I could afford a house. That put me in Woodsboro in 1992. The area was attractive with low crime, elbowroom, good schools, great parks and a fun nearby city. ”

WBPA: What’s your favorite quote from a TV show/movie/book?

Ken Kellar:  “From Space Balls, “ We’re not just doing this for money. We’re doing it for a s*** load of money!” (It’s all in the way he says it and that is definitely not my business mantra!)”

WBPA:  Do you have any pet peeves?

Ken Kellar:  “Tons! But near the top is ignorance-based activism. That is people that are aggressively for or against something but can’t link three coherent sentences together to make their case. I feel that if you are going to try to enact change it is your responsibility to fully understand the situation, its context, its history and its linkages with the rest of the world before you go about screaming for change. “Chesterton’s Fence” sums it up. ”

WBPA: What do you like most about your job?

Ken Kellar:  “I love the sense of involvement it encourages. I get to meet tons of folks: business owners, our local politicians, law enforcement, our local government staff employees, coaches, historians, proud parents, artists, authors, and church leaders. ”

WBPA:  Who do you admire most in the world?

Ken Kellar:  “I follow Rudyard Kipling’s criteria in his poem “If-“: “If all men count with you, but none too much;”. I try not to idolize or hero-worship anyone, acknowledging their achievements as well as their faults. And in that vein I’ll put up John Adams. Why? By all accounts he was a bit of a jerk. But he was the jerk that organized committees and put in the long hours to create our nation. For example he recommended Thomas Jefferson take the lead in drafting the Declaration of Independence. He had tons of faults and suffered dearly for them but he had a great impact.”

Ken Kellar,  December 2019 Member of the Month

WBPA: What’s the career highlight you’re most proud of?

Ken Kellar:  “Several times being asked to be a reference for people that have worked for the paper. ”

WBPA:  What career advice would you give to your younger self?

Ken Kellar:  “Less dreaming more doing! I was turned off from trying my own business for most of my youth because of entrepreneur questionnaires that would ask, “Are you willing to risk your house on a business?” No! I finally realized there are plenty of low risk ways to dabble in business. ”

WBPA: What changes do you see in the future for your industry.

Ken Kellar:  “The newspaper business is supposed to be dying and maybe it is. However, reading from printed paper is a different experience than reading from a glowing screen. There is a sense of privacy and control with a newspaper. No one is scanning your eye movements or checking how long your cursor hovers over an ad.

I think the big papers printing daily are on their way out but there are tons of niches that will keep the print business busy: Sunday editions for the big papers, local papers like this one that focus on local culture and history and specialty papers.”

WBPA:  What’s your favorite hobby? What could you spend hours doing and love it?

Ken Kellar: “Surfing and windsurfing. When land bound I like reading, predominantly non-fiction.”

WBPA:  What advice would you give to our youth?

Ken Kellar: “Don’t specialize in high school. Take all the classes they will let you and as hard a level as you can handle: biology, history, chemistry, physics, advanced math, literature, shop, gym, etc. You’ll see and understand the world much differently and you’ll be more fun to talk to.

Beware of college. You will never have more energy and raw capability than in your teens and twenties. Use that energy to learn something useful. That might mean college but it might not. There are many college degrees that are absolutely useless so be careful. “