Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/tag/last-best-news/page/2/)
Readers of Last Best News, you did us proud. In late February, we posted a survey developed by the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas, which is trying to determine who reads local news websites across the country, and what their readers are like. (more…) Continue Reading →
Regular readers of Last Best News already know that we have been collaborating with Missoula Current, an independent online newspaper that is filling the same niche in Missoula that we have been filling here in Billings. We have been sharing stories, giving each other advice and talking about other ways we can work together to promote and expand independent journalism in Montana. (more…) Continue Reading →
Last week in this space, I delivered a spoof year-end review of Montana and Billings-area news. I sincerely hope you all understood that was a spoof. If not, write to me and I’ll put you on our Satire and Spoof Alert Email List, which will go out in advance of any stories or columns of a facetious nature. (more…) Continue Reading →
Just after we posted an appeal for donations to Last Best News on Tuesday, I got an email from Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia. “Dear Edward,” it began, because Jimmy always calls me Edward, “When the clock strikes midnight, our email fundraiser will end—but we haven’t yet hit our goal.” (more…) Continue Reading →
To the readers of Last Best News:
We have not made a direct appeal for donations since last March, when David Crisp and I launched a fund drive to support our new partnership, a few months after David shut down The Billings Outpost, a weekly newspaper. (more…) Continue Reading →
Last week, I was asked to speak to the American Association of University Women about the meandering path that brought me to Last Best News. What follows is a condensed, and possibly improved, version of those remarks. To begin at the beginning, a long, long time ago, in a place far, far away, I was born. That beginning is more relevant than it may sound, because even before I really knew how to write letters properly, I was already self-publishing little family newsletters, commentaries and magazines, sometimes using little toy printing presses that my brother and I had. (more…) Continue Reading →
At the risk of alienating readers who think all reporters should be cynical toughs too jaded and jaundiced to indulge in social niceties, I’m afraid some thank-yous are in order. We threw our Last Best News party and fundraiser on Friday and I’m writing this on Saturday, exhausted and still a little stunned by how well everything went and by how damned much fun, reportedly, everyone had. (more…) Continue Reading →
Editor’s note: In light of the many questions that have come in regarding the expansion of Last Best News, we asked the renowned but obscure one-time journalist Walter Ego to interview Ed Kemmick, the founder of Last Best News. Here, in place of Kemmick’s usual Prairie Lights column, we offer an edited transcript of the interview. (more…) Continue Reading →
Last Best News will be 2 years old Monday morning. We’re happy to report that Year Two was another good one. As I wrote on our first anniversary, we had 351,293 visits to the site in Year One, or just under 1,000 a day. In the past year, as of Saturday, we more than doubled that, with 708,672 visits, just under 2,000 a day. (more…) Continue Reading →
This is issue number 952 of The Billings Outpost. It also may be the last. At this writing, a chance remains that the paper will be resurrected in some fashion. But it will be under different management, with somebody other than me running the show. In the meantime, we are suspending publication. Continue Reading →
