It took 17 years, but I finally got a story in the Billings Outpost.
I was working at the Gazette something like 20 years ago when David Crisp joined the staff as an assistant region editor, the same job I had. We worked together for a few years — and drank beer, played darts, shot pool, went canoeing and listened to Jimmie Rodgers records together — until David went over to being a reporter, an excellent reporter. And then he left the paper to start his own weekly, the Outpost.
I didn’t see him much after that. Between writing, putting the paper out, doing all the paperwork, delivering the paper every Thursday and teaching multiple college courses to keep food on the table, it seemed like David was working 100 hours a week, in a good week.
It’s safe to say that nearly all the reporters and editors at the Gazette were rooting for David. We admired him for striking off on his own, and I think any good journalist welcomes competition. It keeps us on our toes, spurs us on and gives us another way of looking at the community we cover.
Yep, right there on the front page of the Outpost.
I wanted to write for David, but of course I couldn’t. And then when Nick Ehli, another great reporter, left the Gaz to work in Bozeman and eventually founded the Montana Quarterly for the Chronicle, I wanted desperately to work for him, too. I did figure out a way to write for the Quarterly, by writing stories about people and places outside the Gazette’s coverage area, doing new takes on stories I’d already written for the Gazette or coming up with essays the likes of which daily newspapers don’t generally publish.
But I still couldn’t write for the Outpost … not until following David’s long-ago lead and striking off on my own. So here we are all these years later, hoping to create a fruitful partnership. David will use my stories when they fit with the mission of the Outpost, and I will use his Editor’s Notebooks whenever he gets the notion of writing one — and I hope he will do so more often now.
To kick things off, David has published an expanded version of the story I wrote on the dedication of the Billings Public Library for Last Best News, plus a photo taken but your inexpert by slowly learning correspondent. You could read the story online, but I recommend keeping an eye peeled for one of the many Outpost racks in the Billings area and beyond. You’ve got Last Best News online; why not read a free newspaper when you get the chance?
