Melody Forshée

Founder and Publisher, River City Weekly

Melody has an honors degree in journalism and mass communication from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism, where she also did her graduate work.

Melody began a career in newspapers at the age of 17 as a typesetter for the Blackfoot News.  She moved on to work at the Idaho State Journal in Pocatello while attending Idaho State University for a year before moving to Wisconsin.  She worked full time as a newspaper reporter at The Wisconsin State Journal in Madison while attending journalism school at UW-Madison.

After graduating she moved to work as an instructor and program coordinator at the UW-Madison continuing education division for five years.  Melody then went to a position as communications director for Forward Wisconsin, a state-supported economic development effort headed by then-Gov. Tommy Thompson.

In 1990 Melody left Forward Wisconsin and started her own company, Marler Graphics, which continues today.  Clients have included Madison mayor Sue Bauman, the Credit Union National Association, Milwaukee Economic Development Corporation, and the Wisconsin Auto & Truck Dealers Association, among others.

After moving back home to Idaho in 1999, Melody worked in public relations for Eastern Idaho Technical College and then for U.S. Cellular, followed by three years as a graphic designer for Harris Publishing.

In 2006 Melody left Harris to begin publishing Idaho Hearth Magazine and she started River City Weekly in January 2007.

Over the years Melody has won 18 regional and national awards for editing and publication design, including several top awards from the International Business Communicators Association, IABC and the Mid-America Economic Development Council.

Melody is married to Chuck Forshée and has two sons, one an active-duty Marine in Iraq, and one in college in Boise, four stepsons, and a seven-year-old cocker spaniel, Lucy.