{"id":17145,"date":"2017-04-13T17:29:26","date_gmt":"2017-04-13T23:29:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=17145"},"modified":"2017-04-13T22:10:28","modified_gmt":"2017-04-14T04:10:28","slug":"bought-by-lee-will-missoula-independent-live-up-to-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2017\/04\/bought-by-lee-will-missoula-independent-live-up-to-name\/","title":{"rendered":"Bought by Lee, will Missoula Independent live up to name?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lee\"<\/a>

The Missoula Independent, a free weekly newspaper, has been bought by Lee Enterprises.<\/p><\/div>\n

Missoula Independent Matt Gibson said on Thursday that he chose to sell his business to Lee Enterprises to tap the corporation\u2019s technical capabilities, adding that the Indy\u2019s new partnership with the Missoulian will remain a work in progress as the weeks unfold.<\/p>\n

On Thursday morning, the Missoulian announced<\/a> that its corporate owner, Lee Enterprises, had bought the Missoula Independent for an undisclosed price. The announcement that took the community by surprise.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Lee\u2019s vice president of publishing, Mike Gulledge, who is also the publisher of the Billings Gazette, said the Independent and the Missoulian would remain editorially independent\u2014a statement that was met with skepticism from long-time Independent readers.<\/p>\n

Gibson said he understood the readers\u2019 concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are skeptical whether the Indy will be independent, and I understand that,\u201d Gibson told the Missoula Current. \u201cIt\u2019s my hope that when people use the phrase ‘independent journalism,’ they\u2019re thinking more about quality than the condition of the owners. When we think about what it means to be independent, it\u2019s all about the quality and commitment of the folks in the newsroom.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Independent launched in 1991 as a free weekly publication. Gibson purchased the newspaper\u00a0in 1997 and has managed it ever since. He said it was a difficult decision to sell to Lee Enterprises, though changing online advertising trends forced his hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s technological advancements and market trends that were going to make it very difficult to effectively retain our advertising base,\u201d said Gibson. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have the firepower to innovate and sell. Lee has technology and they\u2019re out on the leading edge of digital newspaper publishing, but there\u2019s more to it than that. It\u2019s the opportunity to train up the sales people and conduct things like market research.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>According to a story posted by the Missoulian, all employees at the Independent “will have the opportunity to keep the jobs they have now.” It also suggested that the two papers would remain separate from one another, with Gibson overseeing the Independent as publisher and Kathy Best keeping her post as the Missoulian\u2019s managing editor.<\/p>\n

Neither paper will have say or oversight of the other’s coverage, according to the Missoulian\u2019s post. Asked if the two papers would share content or collaborate on coverage, Gibson said it was too soon to say how the process would unfold.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s really no prior opportunity around this kind of deal to assess the operation\u2014there\u2019s limited information available to both sides,\u201d Gibson said. \u201cI\u2019m in the dark about what goes on at the Missoulian. It\u2019s not possible to go into it with a plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gibson said the Independent would continue doing what it has in the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to retain the fundamental character of the Missoula Independent,\u201d Gibson said. \u201cAll the things people rely on us for, the personal voice, the quality ad design and our fundamental approach to news reporting. That\u2019s all supposed to stay consistent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lee Enterprises is a stock-held corporation based in Davenport, Iowa, that owns a handful of Montana papers, including those in Billings, Butte, Helena, Hamilton and Missoula. The corporation expects each of those papers to make an increasing level of revenue, much of which is sent back to corporate headquarters.<\/p>\n

In 2016, Gulledge\u2019s base compensation as vice president of publishing was reportedly $456,441. In recent years, the Missoulian has cut local staff and outsourced local jobs to both the Midwest and the Philippines.<\/p>\n

Gibson said it was too soon to say what portion of the Independent\u2019s revenue it would be required to hand over to Lee.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, we\u2019re happy to be a part of Lee, and I think they\u2019re happy to have us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Missoula Current<\/a>, an independent online newspaper, of which\u00a0Martin Kidston is the founding editor.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Missoula Independent Matt Gibson said on Thursday that he chose to sell his business to Lee Enterprises to tap the corporation\u2019s technical capabilities, adding that the Indy\u2019s new partnership with the Missoulian will remain a work in progress as the weeks unfold. On Thursday morning, the Missoulian announced that its corporate owner, Lee Enterprises, had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":97,"featured_media":17146,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,14],"tags":[305,5747,343,971,225],"class_list":["post-17145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-montana","category-news","tag-lee-enterprises","tag-matt-gibson","tag-mike-gulledge","tag-missoula-independent","tag-missoulian","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/97"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17145"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17152,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17145\/revisions\/17152"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}