Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/tag/last-best-news/)
I was planning to ride off into the sunset today, but if I may appropriate an observation by Benjamin Franklin, it looks as though I might be heading in the direction of the rising sun. In the week since I announced that Last Best News would cease publication today, I have heard so many expressions of interest in reviving it in some shape or form, with or without my continued involvement, that it appears likely that this independent online newspaper will live on. (more…) Continue Reading →
One week from today, on July 1, Last Best News will be suspending operations. I plan to keep the site live on the web at least through Sept. 1, so people can use the archives and save any stories they may want to preserve, but as of July 1 we won’t be adding any new content to the site. (more…) Continue Reading →
In a move sure to set heads spinning in the newspaper industry, Last Best News has purchased the Billings Gazette, it was announced shortly after midnight today, Sunday, April 1. Widely seen as a plucky upstart with questionable prospects when it launched as an online-only newspaper just four and a half years ago, Last Best News now finds itself owning the largest daily newspaper in Montana. (more…) Continue Reading →
Here’s your final reminder that the Last Best News fundraising bash is — tonight! Yes, the long, long wait is over and the day is here. Festivities will get underway at 4 p.m. at the Yellowstone Valley Brewing Co.’s Garage Pub at First Avenue North and North 22nd Street. (more…) Continue Reading →
The first time we threw a fundraiser for Last Best News, back in February 2016, it was so much fun that we decided to make it an annual event. So we threw another one last April, again at the Yellowstone Valley Brewing Co.’s Garage Pub. And that was so much fun that a lot of people said we really ought to have one every six months or so. (more…) Continue Reading →
On the afternoon of Wednesday, Oct. 11, Billings mayoral candidates Bill Cole and Jeff Essmann sat down in a conference room in the Billings Public Library to field questions from Last Best News partners Ed Kemmick and David Crisp. Ballots for the Nov. 7 municipal election were to have been sent out to registered voters starting on Wednesday, so some people could receive them as early as today, Oct. 20. Continue Reading →
Last Best News partners Ed Kemmick and David Crisp will be featured in this week’s “Home Ground” show on Yellowstone Public Radio. Hosted by Brian Kahn, “Home Ground” is a weekly public affairs program that was launched in 1996 and is broadcast on radio stations throughout the Rocky Mountain West. The interview with Crisp and Kemmick will be broadcast tonight at 6:30 on Yellowstone Public Radio/KEMC and this Sunday at 11:10 a.m. on Montana Public Radio/KUFM. After the show airs, it will be archived on the Home Ground Radio website. The latest episode looks at the changes sweeping the newspaper world and how online publications like Last Best News fit into that rapidly evolving world. Continue Reading →
Montana Today added a third contributing news source to its team on Monday when we welcomed Jenn Rowell of The Electric in Great Falls to our daily e-news publication. Rowell, a former reporter with the Great Falls Tribune, was laid off by Gannet—the paper’s owner—last October. As I did after leaving the Missoulian, she would spend her nights, perhaps sleeplessly, considering her next move, which led her to launch The Electric. (more…) Continue Reading →
Readers, we need your help. And some of you, we think, could use a little help from us. (more…) Continue Reading →
It’s time for the second annual Last Best News fundraising party. The first Last Best News bash was held on Feb. 26, 2016, on an unusually beautiful day that brought about 400 people to the Garage Pub at the Yellowstone Valley Brewing Company. I wrote in the aftermath of that event that we hoped we wouldn’t need a fundraiser again for a good long while. However, as I said, “we also agreed that the party was so much fun that we ought to make it an annual event.” Continue Reading →
