You’ll notice some changes in this issue of the Boulder Monitor. The most notable: For the first time since March, 2002, Jan Anderson’s byline does not appear in the paper. That’s because Jan and her husband David have sold the Monitor to me and my wife, Jackie Dyer. We will publish the Monitor via our company, Response Media LLC. We’ve hired John Blodgett, who recently ran The Western News in Libby, to serve as editor; and Candace Hecker, a familiar face in this community, as office manager.
I’d like to tell you a bit about myself, why we’ve bought the Monitor, and what we hope to accomplish. But first, a few words about Jan.
In my opinion, Jan is a true hero. She has written, edited and published the Monitor every week – every week – for close to 17 years. That’s nearly 900 issues. In that time, she has documented your Chamber of Commerce and County Commission and Planning Board meetings; your school science fairs, plays and volleyball tournaments; your rodeos, parades and pot-luck dinners. Since 2002, she has narrated the story of your town and county.
Jan has told that story with love for the place she calls home – but she also has been tough. She has resisted taking sides or being guided by anything but the facts. She has been a passionate advocate for independent journalism and freedom of information, a stance that has ruffled feathers and, sometimes, just ticked people off. What I’ve heard in the last few weeks indicates that Boulder and Jefferson County appreciate the importance of her approach, even if you didn’t always like it – and I think that’s a healthy tension.
About me: I’ve been a journalist for more than 40 years, since I started writing and taking pictures for my local paper in Connecticut during high school. Back then, I enjoyed seeing my byline in print. But I also appreciated the indelible connection the newspaper had to our community, the way it reflected and informed both the worst sins and the highest ambitions of the town. I learned much later that this relationship had been beautifully described back in 1969 by the publisher and editor John S. Knight; newspapers, he said, sought to “bestir the people into an awareness of their own condition, provide inspiration for their thoughts and rouse them to pursue their true interests.” Those words remain incredibly meaningful to me.
I reported briefly from London and Johannesburg, but most of my career in print was spent as a business journalist in New York and Boston for The New York Times, Business Week and Fast Company. I covered corporate leaders, great and indifferent; entrepreneurs, successful and otherwise; and the people who worked for them. I wrote about wealth, and about the impact, good and bad, that profit-making had on individuals and communities. Ten years ago, I left writing and editing to join a nonprofit organization called Ashoka, where I built and supported a global network of news entrepreneurs, most of them in places that aren’t friendly to independent journalism. And five years ago, I helped start another nonprofit called the Solutions Journalism Network (SJN), which now works with close to 200 news organizations to support critical reporting on the responses to social challenges. I’m still president of that group.
That’s how I discovered Boulder. A year and a half ago, Jan agreed to join “The Montana Gap,” a collaboration of 12 news organizations in the western part of the state that SJN had put together. The idea was to join forces to produce and share solutions- focused reporting on urgent issues facing rural Montana. In the last year, that collaboration has produced nearly 50 stories on economic development and mental health.
In that time, I’ve developed an appreciation and enormous respect for Jan and for the Monitor’s feisty but caring reporting. When we began talking last July about a sale of the paper, I quickly became confident that this was a strong news outlet in an energetic and forward-looking community. When I visited in August for the rodeo and county fair, I found many, many people who were engaged not just in Boulder’s present but also in the question of what their community might become.
That show of civic strength was great to see. It’s also, obviously, vital. Jefferson County is at a pivotal juncture; decisions made now will determine the sort of community this becomes for future generations. Who will move here? Who will stay? Where will their jobs come from? Where will they shop, dine and find services? Will the young continue to enjoy good schools? Will the elderly get the care they deserve? Will all stay safe from crime, violence and the ravages of substance abuse? And most of all: How can this place preserve the quality of life that its citizens have come to enjoy? How will the small towns of Jefferson County, like small towns across Montana and across the West, survive?
The Monitor will take on these central questions. Building on the foundation Jan has laid, we will report on the many challenges facing our community, explaining what’s wrong and why – and, when merited, who’s at fault. We believe that understanding what’s broken is the first step toward fixing it, and that our leaders must be transparent and accountable. But we also know that, if people only read about what’s broken, citizenship and democracy suffer. Faced with a constant barrage of bad news, many people retreat into disengagement, cynicism, polarization and dysfunction. They begin to think that problems are insurmountable, that change is too difficult, and that they’re powerless to make a difference.
The reality, of course, is quite different. That’s why the Monitor will continue to report on the individuals and institutions working to fix those problems, here and elsewhere. We hope that this solution-focused coverage will help bridge divisions, providing a platform for constructive discussions about the county’s present and future. We also hope it will restore agency, providing encouragement for more people to get involved in working for change.
Jackie and I are grateful to Jan and David for giving us this opportunity – and we’re happy they’ll get to see their grandchildren in California next month. We’re grateful to John and Candace for joining us on this adventure. (You’ll hear from them in the coming weeks.) We’re grateful to you for welcoming us to Jefferson County, and we look forward to meeting and hearing from everyone: Tell us what’s important to you and how you think the Monitor is doing at covering that. (You can start by completing and returning the survey you’ll get next month in the mail.)
We’re thrilled to be able to spend more time in Montana, a place where we have come to find much joy. We know we have much to learn – about our town and county and, also, honestly, about running a newspaper – and we’re eager to get started. We’re proud to be stewarding the Monitor in the next phase of its 111-year life. And we’re excited about its future.
