It was a very popular article, getting several hundred views for each of the next few months. Obviously people are interested about newspapers in Montana, and I thought you might be interested in a little more than what was in that article.
For instance, how many newspapers are in Montana?
- Wikipedia lists 90 on their list of Montana newspapers;
- The Montana Newspaper Association says they’re 87 strong;
Wow, kind of all over the place, huh?
If we take a look at Montana Almanac: The First, Best Source For Information About Big Sky Country we can find quite a bit on newspapers. The book was put together by Andrea Merrill-Maker in 2006 and I highly recommend taking a look at it:
The conclusion is clear, however – most of our current newspapers came about during the Robber Baron days and during the homesteading boom years of the early 20th century. Few have started since then, and there have probably been more mergers in that time than actual start-ups.
- 1880s: 6 of the majors created, 11 of the minor created;
- 1910s: 1 of the majors created, 16 of the minor created;
- 1940s: 1 of the majors created, 2 of the minor created.
You can argue that the Montana Standard should belong with the 1880s as well. The reason is that the Anaconda Standard and the Butte Miner were merged in 1928 (though the Butte Miner formed in 1876).
The Havre Daily News came about in 1928 and the Missoulian started in 1870. That gives us all our major daily newspapers in Montana.
But is that good enough? Probably not. Let’s put the daily circulation of the major daily newspapers from Montana Almanac into a graph, like this:
Or you can just let me do this stuff. Buying some of my books helps with that, as it gives me money so I can buy food.
Thanks!