So what’s going on with the Mountaineer? The Havre Daily’s “motherboard,” which they use to make the pages in the paper, is down. Havre is sending their paper to Cheyenne, Wyoming. We learned about it on Monday, July 10th, right before the Mountaineer was due at the printers. The problem was Cheyenne won’t print a six-page paper, and we couldn’t make an eight-page paper that quickly, let alone we didn’t have enough ads to cover the cost.
So many newspapers have closed their doors in Montana, and there aren’t a lot of places to get the paper printed anymore. It is also more costly to do so even if they could take on the extra Mountaineer printing job. In other words, whatever happens to the Havre Daily happens to us.
Also, the Mountaineer has recently lost some significant advertisements. We need to ensure some other advertisement quickly in order to continue. It’s hard to believe, but the paper needs to be 45-50% advertisement in order to be financially viable. If you believe in the power of prayer, I would ask you to pray for the Mountaineer.
I still believe the community needs a newspaper. However, it isn’t necessarily news. The Mountaineer is a community tool to help us stay connected, which brings me to the articles needed for the paper. I just found out, for example, about the wrestling workshop in town this last weekend. I would have loved to cover it if I had known. I would like it if you have a story or an idea for an article to contact me or Erik Sietsema with your idea.
I would also like to say that I appreciate Erik so much. He’s a better writer than I am. So I am so glad he writes for us all. Everyone always enjoys his articles, and I treasure him for his support, as everyone else does.
