Research Project Creates a State-Wide Map of Local News for Montana

A new study from the LOR Foundation, an organization focused on rural community development, maps local news outlets in Montana to provide a look at demographics and gaps in coverage. Efforts to map local news have become popular in states like Colorado, Nebraska, Minnesota, and beyond.

Mapping local news provides valuable information about where the coverage is lacking and helps funders identify places most in need of support. Daniel Read, research analyst at the LOR Foundation, said the study matters because “data can drive action towards places that are typically underserved by local media or just underrepresented generally in the media landscape.”

Read spent two months calling people in Montana to inquire about their local news environment for the study. This included “the librarian and the county clerk, and maybe the manager of a history museum, people who were just likely to pick up the phone,” said Read, as well as, contacting every obvious news source. By reaching out to local leaders embedded in the communities, they were able to identify local news sources that might not be obvious from an internet search.

“If they’re providing original local news, we wanted them included,” Read said. “We were very agnostic to the medium that was being provided.” This means they included radio stations that primarily play music but might also include news and podcasts providing original reporting, like Hello Whitefish, a long-form podcast out of Whitefish, Montana.

LOR did not include sources like Reddit, Facebook, and civic news sources like a local chamber of commerce newsletter. Read said that they could see doing another study looking at these more social versions of news, which can be a primary source of information for rural communities without many traditional news sources.

When asked how many of Montana Broadcaster Association’s (MBA) members were in rural areas, Dewey Bruce, president and CEO of MBA, replied, “In Montana, everything is rural.” He went on to say that not including the top seven media markets in Montana — made up of the seven statistical areas of the state —  around 70% of their members are in rural areas.

Even the biggest metropolitan markets are smaller than most states. Billings, the largest city in the state, has a population of around 120,000.

There were only five counties out of Montana’s 56 counties with zero local news sources, most of which have less than 1,000 residents. However, Toole and Liberty counties, both news deserts, have a combined total of nearly 7,000 residents and zero news sources. The study also found that counties with larger populations, higher median incomes, and more private businesses supported more news.

“Rural places are often the places that are most underrepresented…they’re the places that are most likely to be a media desert, a local news desert,” Read said.

Jim Strauss, director of communications and development for Montana Newspaper Association, said that Montana residents are worried about consolidation — papers being bought by national corporations — reduced coverage, and closures that are happening around the state.

“Nothing can replace the local boots on the ground. You have to have local reporters in the community. And because of the financial challenges that some news outlets face, unfortunately, that number has been on the decline”

Strauss said that one thing they are currently paying attention to is the transition of ownership of local publications. Many newspaper owners are aging out and Montana Newspaper Association is working to support these legacy outlets as they transition to a new generation of management.

“It’s really hard work to run a weekly newspaper or a small radio station,” Strauss said, “We’re finding it more difficult to attract people to take over those properties, and that’s one of our challenges.”

A Long-lasting Newspaper

One successful story of a transition of ownership took place in Choteau, Montana, a town of 1,714 on the east side of the Rocky Mountains.

Melody Martinsen was 24 years old and working at the Great Falls Tribune when she got a call from the owner of the Choteau Acantha, Dick Nordhagen, who wanted Martinsen and her husband to buy the paper, which was founded in 1894. That was in 1990 and the Martinsens have run the paper ever since.

The Martinsens have kept the paper pretty much the same as it was 35 years ago. “We haven’t changed our core mission ever,” said Martinsen. They have two other reporters and a few additional staff and put out a weekly print newspaper as well as providing online breaking news coverage.

“We are going to give our readers news that they can’t get on Facebook or social media,” Martinsen said. “We’re going to cover city council meetings, county commissioner meetings, school board meetings, airport board meetings, library board meetings, cemetery board meetings, water and sewer district board meetings.”

The Acantha is the paper of record for Teton County and has 1,400 paid subscribers, in a county of 6,400. Advertising is a significant part of their revenue stream, as has been traditional for print newspapers because they have been able to keep their local subscriptions strong.

“Local journalism sheds light on a community’s problems and helps bring solutions to those problems,” Strauss said. “A more informed local community is going to be better in the long run as it recognizes and solves its challenges.”

Having strong support from their readership has been a lifeline for the paper. On January 7, 2025, the Choteau Acantha building caught fire. But because of support from the community, the Martinsens “didn’t miss a beat”. They published the paper the following week as they always have.

“Our community has been beyond amazing. I’ll start to cry if I talk about how amazing they’ve been,” said Martinsen. They were offered multiple spaces to use as temporary offices, were donated furniture and a new phone system, and the elementary school held a penny war to raise money for the paper.

Strauss and the Montana Newspaper Association are working with the University of Montana’s journalism program to try to get more reporters in rural communities. One initiative is engaging high school students with the local papers in their communities and providing scholarships and internships.

“While there’s endless ways we can get national news, in much of Montana, there are very limited ways that we can get local news. So sustaining and building that voice is of greater importance than ever,” Strauss said.

Disclaimer: The LOR Foundation provides financial support of the Daily Yonder’s reporting in select rural communities in Colorado and New Mexico. Coverage decisions are made independently by our newsroom team and not on the basis of donor support. See our full statement of editorial independence for more information.

This article first appeared on The Daily Yonder and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.