The Demise of the Missoula Independent

Rambling Thoughts on Alt-Weeklies

Some folks will tell you that these days “everybody” gets their news online. With that in mind, it is no surprise newspapers are closing their doors on a regular basis. Montana suffered the loss of a newspaper when the Missoula Independent shut its doors unexpectedly on September 11. The fact that this was Missoula’s edgy alternative weekly paper that had been around since 1991 makes the news a real bummer.

I have a fondness for independent newspapers, sometimes called alt-weeklies, like the Independent. Liberal leaning, covering in-depth topics important to the community that other papers either skim over or ignore completely, independent weeklies are the type of papers that have been focusing on diverse groups and underrepresented voices before these were buzzwords. These papers are unafraid and most  are free.

And they wouldn’t be complete without the racy ads in the back, along with cool features like News of the Weird , Rob Bresney’s Free Will Astrology , and Harper’s Index .

My first independent weekly was the New Haven Advocate, something I discovered during my first week of college. As a girl from the New Jersey exurbs, it opened my eyes to life in my new urban home. While I was drawn to it to find out about music, culinary, and social happenings, I eventually began to enjoy reading about local issues and what folks were all fired up about. It was then I started to value living in a community where cool things happened, people had strong opinions, and folks were engaged enough to make these things happen. I began to see an independent paper as the voice of a community.

The New Haven Advocate was a refreshing change of pace from my hometown weekly paper the Randolph Reporter, which, other than the police blotter, only said nice things about everyone and everything. And I won’t deny I giggled over the racy classified ads in the back. The New Haven Advocate was around from 1975 to 2013.

Bozeman had its own independent paper, The Tributary, which was published from 1991 to 2008. The Tributary featured the same sort of left-leaning, alternative reporting as other alternative papers but came out monthly instead of weekly and ads in the back were a bit less racy.

Lee Enterprises, a media company publishing 46 daily newspapers in 21 states including Missoula’s daily paper the Missoulian,  bought The Independent just over a year ago. Coincidently, Lee Enterprises is the same company bought The Tributary in 2004 and shut it down in 2008. I can’t help but wonder if they purchased both alternative papers with the intention of eventually shutting them down and limiting competition for their other papers.

Once again, many people point to the fact that newspapers are dying. These things will happen they say without much sadness or sense of loss. However, I’m bummed to see another independent paper go. I still prefer a print paper (Or book or magazine) over a digital copy. Who wants to send even more time gazing at a screen?

I always enjoyed the anticipation of the next issue of The Tributary or the New Haven Advocate. Picked up around town in either their own street-side newspaper boxes or at local bars, coffee shops and retail spaces, these papers were something I looked forward to as they reminded me I lived in place that is educated and engaged. The palpable sense of community these papers exuded stuck with me like the ink on my fingers.

While I miss the tangible product, I miss the content even more. With traditional websites, social media, and personal blogs, endless messages make their way into our lives with a frequency and intensity we couldn’t fathom 20 years ago. Anyone with a computer, an internet connection, and a little bit of time and knowhow can now share their message far and wide. Alt-weeklies offer a curated collection of articles and content that is thoughtfully gathered and written with care, not just something that is tapped out on one’s computer and posted to the world.

With The Tributary and the Missoula Independent gone, not many alternative papers exist in the northern Rocky Mountains. South of us, Denver’s alt-weekly, Westword, has been kickin’ since 1977. I suspect it’s the growing population of the Denver metro area (Pushing 3 million) that keeps it going.

Like vinyl record, maybe alt-weeklies will have a revival. A girl can always dream.

~

If you like this post read...

• Missoula Road Trip: http://annvinciguerra.blogspot.com/2016/03/road-trip-missoula-mt.html
• New Haven: http://annvinciguerra.blogspot.com/search/label/New%20Haven