A self-made entrepreneur for the past 27 years, Jeannine Taylor has backed her vision with substance as the founder, CEO and publisher of kawarthaNOW.com – the only independent Kawarthas media company owned, and operated by a woman.
Born and raised in Peterborough, Taylor graduated from Fleming College in arts administration and marketing, working for several local arts organizations before becoming marketing director for Lansdowne Place.
After toiling for the Peterborough Downtown Business Improvement Area and serving as managing editor for three local magazines, Taylor’s visionary recognition of the emerging importance of the Internet as a communications platform led to her launch quidnovis.com, the local region’s first ‘electronic’ magazine and, later, Quid Novis Internet Productions, a website development and hosting company with hundreds of clients.
By the early 2000s, as numerous entities became embroiled in the online media frenzy by developing their own websites and related Internet presence, Taylor saw the writing on the wall for Quid Novis, and decided to pivot. In 2006, she re-launched quidnovis.com as kawarthaNOW.com, a digital media company focused on local community, business and arts/entertainment news.
Serving Peterborough, the Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland, Hastings and Haliburton, kawarthaNOW.com now boasts more than 72,000 regular readers, 13,800 weekly e-news subscribers and more than 70,000 followers on social media.
As committed as she is to her business and to her clients, Taylor has consistently gifted her time to support and mentor other women in business. She has been a member of the Women’s Business Network since 1987, a founding member of 100 Women Peterborough, and served on the committee for Inspire: The Women’s Portrait Project Gala in 2018.
Truth be known, Taylor’s board and committee work resumé is too vast to include in its entirety – but suffice to say countless organizations, and their clients, have benefitted from her insight, dedication and drive to succeed – as many have, thanks to her wise counsel.
Add to the mix kawarthaNOW.com’s sponsorship of numerous local non-profits that provides far-reaching, invaluable promotion of their respective programs and initiatives.
Named Peterborough Business Woman of the Year in 2005, Taylor has brought home a boatlload of other awards and honours. The recipient of two Peterborough Chamber Business Excellence Awards – in 2011 for Best Micro Business, and 2013 for Entrepreneurial Spirit, Taylor was a finalist for the Kawartha Chamber’s Entrepreneur Innovation Award in 2018. That same year saw then-MP Maryam Monsef present Taylor the Peterborough-Kawartha Women’s Leadership Award.