Jordan Sellergren started her relationship with Little Village Magazine as a freelance ad designer, doing one-off projects for $50 or so. 

Ten and a half years later, she is the owner and publisher, ushering the Iowa City-based publication into its 25th year. It covers 50 communities across Iowa with 900 pickup locations. 

“If I could be in every Casey’s on the highway throughout the state, that’d be amazing,” Sellergren said. 

Sellergren lived in Burlington and Cedar Rapids growing up. She went to college in Minneapolis and spent time living abroad as well. But she felt called back to Iowa, where she could live a creative life at a pace that suited her well. 

Sellergren sat down with Fearless to talk about publishing in Iowa and what it’s like to blend her creative side with business ownership. 

Her responses have been lightly edited for brevity and clarity. 

What brought you back to Iowa?

Originally, it was the high quality public schools. I just also love it here. You grow up and you have a fondness for your home. My family was here at the time. I also felt that as a small-city, small-state person, I could have the most impact coming back to the place that I knew I could handle. 

Why not stay here? Why not root in and make this place our own? We really have a lot of power to turn this place into our kind of pseudo-utopia if we stick around. 

How did you go from being the art director of the magazine to becoming its leader? 

As the art director, I was involved in editorial. I worked with the editors in content direction and layout. I was also the ad liaison, so I was doing a lot of outreach to our advertisers. I was the production manager, and the reason that I took on that role, which we kind of just invented, was because nobody’s stuff was coming in on time and somebody had to make it happen. As the person responsible for the layout, I was the last person to touch the magazine so I was the last one staying up late if things came in late. So I just had a kind of managerial output in general, as well as an understanding of how sales and revenue worked.

You’re a musician as well. Was it hard to take the artist side of your brain and pair it with the business side of your brain? 

For me, I really enjoy the production of things. The broad visualization, the broad vision of a project. As a musician, my albums have been more “broad vision” than I expected. You start from something small and you create this large product that has a long story. I think part of the satisfaction that I get from creative projects is being able to first visualize and then execute from beginning to end. So in a way, owning a business is ideal because I get to imagine and then implement, and it’s very satisfying. 

I don’t have the time to prioritize personal creative projects, but the business itself is a very creative investment because it’s a lot of long-term vision. You have to visualize and you have to execute. You have to see something through to a final product, just like you do with any song or album or comic strip or whatever. It’s all about: What’s the idea? What’s the point? What’s the purpose? If you really know that, and you come up with a way to make it happen, that’s creative. 

When I was working on my most recent album, I actually went down to three-quarter time so I could have a songwriting day where I focused on nothing else. I don’t have time to do that. 

There have been times when I’ve really missed it, because it just felt so important at the time, like I was doing something that was really, really important for my soul. But I also burn out on it. I don’t know if I could have sustained such a selfish outlook for much longer. It’s really nice to have an opportunity to do something creative on behalf of the whole community. 

What was it like to transition from being a leader within the business to taking ownership of the entire thing? 

The offer was made in early August of 2024 and I took over Jan. 1, 2025. So I had about four months to really prepare. During that time, I just learned as much as I possibly could from the previous owner, Matt Steele, through the bureaucratic necessities of an ownership transfer. I learned more about bookkeeping and sales and taxes and the fun stuff — and I actually do think it’s fun. I’m not necessarily great at it, but it’s all part of the picture. 

I imagine it was kind of scary to take over a publishing outfit at this time. 

Terrifying. In the July issue, Matt specifically talked about how he spent a lot of time in terror because he was responsible for stewarding this beloved community publication, and it’s scary to be the one who either makes or breaks it. I have full confidence in my staff, but I have to be the one that makes sure the money comes in so that I can pay them to do the wonderful work they’re doing — that was really scary. But to be honest, I was so excited and I was just so ready for the transfer. I was too ignorant to know how scary it actually was. And then the fear started setting in over the next few months when I realized how quickly money comes in and goes out, and how much payroll actually is, what monthly expenses actually look like. Sometimes, when you think about that with a bit of perspective, it can almost be unbelievable what you’re responsible for. 

A lot of magazines aren’t surviving right now. Does that scare you even more?

I think what we do is so beloved and so important. We’re a really good example of a free press success story. Our publication is free. The accessibility, the ability to provide people with essential information and entertainment with no strings attached — I think people see it as being a really important service.

You said “what we do is important.” How would you describe what it is that you do? 

We provide free information and journalism to our readers. We also serve as a platform to elevate artists throughout the state, draw attention to organizations and small businesses. We entertain. The alt-weekly model has to be fun, or what’s the point? 

Why do you think Iowa is a good place for artists to live and work?

It’s relatively cheaper, compared to a bigger city. There’s a lot of space to think. You have more time in your day here because the commute’s generally not as long. Like in Iowa City, the town’s so small that you can walk across it in an hour, so you just have more time and more space. I lived in Minneapolis and then Auckland, New Zealand for a while. So I had small-city experience, but I don’t remember having a lot of creative time. I just remember feeling a little bit more clogged up. Time is not cheap. 

As you’ve gone from freelance designer to art director to now owner and publisher, what’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned? 

Relationships are big. In any position, when you’re working with somebody, I think it’s really important that they feel heard. So if it’s a client or a contributor or a reader, just really listening and learning how to respond to people in a way that makes them feel like they care. I think that’s something I probably had taken for granted prior to taking over a business. I realized the business would be on the line unless I really cared. 

Do you feel any specific pressures being a woman in business and a woman publisher? 

No, I don’t feel like I have to do anything differently. I’ve always had a really strong, bold personality, and I don’t take crap from anybody. I certainly suffer from self-doubt. But I am not going to let any man push me around. But that being said, I definitely see where women are pushed around. I’m uniquely not perturbed by it in my own life, but I will fight for those who are.