Lee Enterprises brings Great Falls Tribune into portfolio

Lee Enterprises, which owns five of Montana’s largest circulation newspapers, is acquiring one more daily paper, the Great Falls Tribune, the company announced on Monday.

In Montana, Lee Enterprises owns The Billings Gazette, the Missoulian, the Helena Independent-Record, the Montana Standard, and the Ravalli Republic.

With Lee’s acquisition of the Tribune, the company controls newspapers in most of the state’s major population centers. Only Bozeman, Livingston and the Kalispell area are served by daily news outlets owned by other parent companies.

In addition, Lee added three South Dakota papers to its nationwide portfolio of nearly 200 mastheads. The company already owned the Rapid City Journal and now will operate the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, the Aberdeen American News (including the Farm Forum), and the Watertown Public Opinion.

All four papers were acquired from the USA Today Company.

In a press release, Lee said the change would allow the company to “invest in growth, serve local audiences and support the future of community journalism.”

“We’re honored to deepen our commitment to the communities of Montana and South Dakota,” Nathan Bekke, Lee’s president and chief executive officer, said in a statement. “Across the 193 brands we serve in 28 states, our focus is the same: Providing trusted local news and information that helps people stay informed, connected and engaged in their communities.”

But the future of the Tribune — and Montana’s other print newspapers — remains in question, as consolidation of news outlets by corporate owners has shown to decrease staff and news coverage, according to a Nieman Labs report.

The Great Falls Tribune currently lists a single person in its staff directory, editor Grady Higgins, who did not respond to emailed questions about the transition by publication time.

The company has been cutting newsroom staff in the state for years. In spring 2023, Lee Enterprises eliminated at least 13 newsrooms positions in Montana representing one-third to one-half of existing editorial staff at its papers.

Earlier this year, Lee announced billionaire David Hoffman had acquired a controlling stake in the company and became chairperson. In a glowing profile that all Lee newspapers ran about Hoffman, he was announced as the “new hope for local news.”

But the company has continued to lay off editorial staff in recent weeks and implemented hiring freezes across its network.

Lee Enterprises declined to provide additional comments about plans to hire editorial staff at the Tribune or hiring practices in Montana newsrooms.

The Tribune opened in 1885 as a weekly newspaper and is the oldest continuously running business in Great Falls. At its peak last century, the paper had a staff of around 300 and in 2010 still had around 165 employees, a number which was cut in half over the next decade.

Editor’s note: Daily Montanan staff members Darrell Ehrlick, Keila Szpaller and Jordan Hansen are all former Lee Enterprises employees. Szpaller previously worked for the Tribune.