{"id":8042,"date":"2015-08-27T13:40:58","date_gmt":"2015-08-27T19:40:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=8042"},"modified":"2015-08-27T13:40:58","modified_gmt":"2015-08-27T19:40:58","slug":"dennison-cut-loose-by-lee-to-report-for-television-network","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2015\/08\/dennison-cut-loose-by-lee-to-report-for-television-network\/","title":{"rendered":"Dennison, cut loose by Lee, to report for television network"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dennison\"<\/a>

Mike Dennison, soon to be chief political reporter for the Montana Television Network.<\/p><\/div>\n

Mike Dennison, one of the experienced state bureau reporters let go by the Lee Newspapers of Montana three months ago, has been hired by the Montana Television Network.<\/p>\n

Starting Monday, Dennison will be the chief political reporter for the network, which has television stations in seven Montana cities, including KTVQ in Billings. The hiring was announced on MTN websites Thursday afternoon and is scheduled to be reported on the stations\u2019 evening news shows.<\/p>\n

In its announcement of the hiring<\/a>, KTVQ also said television viewers will be introduced to Dennison in a special episode of \u201cFace The State\u201d this Sunday. The show will air at 9:30 a.m. on all MTN stations.<\/p>\n

Charles Johnson, the other state bureau reporter who lost his job with Lee in May, said MTN\u2019s decision to hire Dennison \u201cis wonderful news for Montana. \u2026 What a shame it would have been for him not to work in news.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jon Stepanek, news director at KTVQ, said the hiring of Dennison is part of MTN\u2019s commitment to strengthening its reporting resources, particularly in regard to its online news and social media coverage.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople expect from us interesting stories, well-written, well-researched, with depth,\u201d he said. \u201cFor that, we feel we need excellent journalists.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Montana newspapers have lost circulation and trimmed their staffs in recent years, MTN has been hiring away some experienced print journalists.<\/p>\n

They include Greg Tuttle, a Billings Gazette cops-and-courts reporter for 12 years who became KTVQ\u2019s online editor in 2013; Sanjay Talwani, who left the Helena Independent Record to work for KXLH; and John Emeigh, who jumped to KXLF in Butte from the Montana Standard.<\/p>\n

All three of those papers are owned by Lee Enterprises, and all the TV stations are affiliates of MTN. And now Dennison, cut loose by Lee, will be reporting for all the MTN affiliates.<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>\u201cIt\u2019s an unusual development,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cI can think of some cases where TV reporters ended up going into newspapers, but the move now seems to be going in the other direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he left the state bureau, Dennison said, he figured he\u2019d end up doing public relations work, either for a state agency or a politician. But MTN came knocking almost immediately, which he called \u201ca very pleasant and welcome surprise.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMTN offered me a chance to continue my career as a political reporter, work with a new team that includes some great Montana journalists all over the state, learn some new approaches to journalism and fashion a new position from the ground up,\u201d Dennison said. \u201cNot a hard decision to make.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dennison and former bureau chief Johnson, who had more than 60 years\u2019 experience covering state government between them, were not technically laid off by Lee, but they were told they could stay on only if they accepted substantial pay cuts. Johnson offered to retire if Dennison were allowed to stay on as bureau chief at the same pay, but that was rejected.<\/p>\n

Dennison, who will continue to be based in Helena, said he expects to do a mix of breaking news stories and investigative pieces, lengthier stories that will run on MTN\u2019s websites.<\/p>\n

Stepanek said Dennison will not be an on-air reporter in the traditional sense, but will be brought on air to talk about stories he\u2019s written, giving background and perhaps a summary of a story that will run in full online.<\/p>\n

Stepanek said the trend of hiring experienced print journalists is based on a longstanding directive from Jon Saunders, group manager for MTN.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has always charged us with finding the best people to fill critical roles,\u201d Stepanek said. The move by television to offer more in-depth coverage as newspapers offer less of it is \u201cjust the evolution of the industry,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Circulation and advertising are down for most newspapers, Stepanek said, but TV viewership is as strong as it\u2019s ever been, and now, with \u201crobust\u201d use of the TV stations\u2019 online and social media offerings, there is a need for more news coverage, and more in-depth coverage.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to continue to produce quality content,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd to do that, you have to hire, and pay, good people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson, who was recently appointed to the Montana Historical Society Board of Trustees, doesn\u2019t know what he\u2019ll be doing next.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t decided,\u201d he said. \u201cI deliberately took the summer off and took it easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Full disclosure<\/strong>: Ed Kemmick has an agreement with KTVQ that allows the station to use his stories in exchange for a monthly fee.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mike Dennison, one of the experienced state bureau reporters let go by the Lee Newspapers of Montana three months ago, has been hired by the Montana Television Network. Starting Monday, Dennison will be the chief political reporter for the network, which has television stations in seven Montana cities, including KTVQ in Billings. The hiring was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[3000,3003,3005,3002,3001,2444,2523,3006,3004],"class_list":["post-8042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-montana","tag-charles-johnson","tag-greg-tuttle","tag-john-emeigh","tag-jon-saunders","tag-jon-stepanek","tag-ktvq","tag-mike-dennison","tag-mtn","tag-sanjay-talwani","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8042","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}