Need help w/ GF Tribune

by **TomCat88** on Tue Oct 30, 2012 3:31 pm

That whole thing in the IR was awkward, wrapped in weird with a dash of bizarre.

First, you really shouldn't run a puff-piece right next to two stories about teammates that are in trouble. Second, I just skimmed thru it, but there was no mention of the trouble he has been in and this was a perfect opportunity for him to show some contrition. Lastly, as mentioned, there's been next nothing on Foster (HHS) and Sampson (CHS), which has all kinds of potential with them both being senior O linemen.

The second part has nothing to do with the IR since it was written by Bill Speltz of the Missoulian.

by **Colter_Nuanez** on Tue Oct 30, 2012 4:11 pm

I know the IR is planning a story on Sampson for Cat-Griz weekend. I had to wait to interview Sampson for my story for Cat-Griz game day issue because he was on the phone with an IR reporter. Just a tidbit.

by **LongTimeCatFan** on Tue Oct 30, 2012 6:01 pm

Screw The Tribune, Missoulian, IR, and Inter Lake. No One writes better than Colter so why do we need to read their two bit drivel anyway. I cancelled my subscription to the Inter Lake last year and haven't missed it one bit, however I am considering an online subscription to the Chronicle. Probably because I feel guilty for reading so much stuff for free and not just football. Hell, they cover Flathead news just as good if not better than the Inter Lake. So SCREW THEM
Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk 2

by **dakota** on Wed Oct 31, 2012 1:58 pm

Colture,

With that said, ( and I like the kid) the ir gives reports everytime Matt Miller asked to be excused to go the rest room at Boise?

what I dont get #-o

------ you take all staff, all student body, and any former staff member, or former student at CC, and all those COMBINED numbers would still be thousands less than the number of alumni from MSU that live in Helena

is not the bottom line sales?

by **dakota** on Wed Oct 31, 2012 1:59 pm

sorry--- Colter sp

by **Colter_Nuanez** on Wed Oct 31, 2012 2:42 pm

dakota wrote:Colture,

With that said, ( and I like the kid) the ir gives reports everytime Matt Miller asked to be excused to go the rest room at Boise?

what I dont get

------ you take all staff, all student body, and any former staff member, or former student at CC, and all those COMBINED numbers would still be thousands less than the number of alumni from MSU that live in Helena

is not the bottom line sales?

It's all a matter of philosophy. The bottom line is readers, yes, but many newspapers think the way to please readers it to go hyper-local. Under that philosophy, in a town like Helena, you write about the Saints, the high schools and any athletes from that town who are successful. Unfortunately, MSU and UM will both fall by the wayside in comparison to anything having to directly do with Helena.

In newspapers, we are struggling. Bad. You all might not like the decline in coverage, but if it were up to ANY of the sports writers and editors in this state, we would cover EVERY SINGLE THING HAVING TO DO WITH MONTANA to the best of our ability. The problem is, we are all so freakin short staffed, it's not possible whatsoever. The IR couldn't cover the Cats and the Griz if they wanted to. They don't have the resources.

At the Chronicle, we are getting by because I'm on salary and I refuse to let our product slip (even though it has despite my efforts in both size and scope). It's a rare occasion that I'm awake and not doing something related to the Chron. We are also at a disadvantage statewide because the IR, Missoulian and Gazette are all owned by Lee, so they can share content. The Missoulian has a six-person staff, the Gazette is working with seven staffers. The IR has four full-timers. That's 17 people to cover different areas of the state and share content. We have two full-timers — Myself and Gidal.

The Tribune is down to three full-time and one part-time guy.

The point is, it's fine to be dissatisfied with the coverage of your local paper and we always love feedback.

by **St George** on Wed Oct 31, 2012 2:52 pm

The GF Trib has always sucked when it comes to MSU sports. Could be worse, the papers here in Idaho go to bed so early and are so lame we are lucky to even see a line score for the Big Sky schools.

by **allcat** on Wed Oct 31, 2012 2:57 pm

Colter_Nuanez wrote:
dakota wrote:Colture,

With that said, ( and I like the kid) the ir gives reports everytime Matt Miller asked to be excused to go the rest room at Boise?

what I dont get

------ you take all staff, all student body, and any former staff member, or former student at CC, and all those COMBINED numbers would still be thousands less than the number of alumni from MSU that live in Helena

is not the bottom line sales?

It's all a matter of philosophy. The bottom line is readers, yes, but many newspapers think the way to please readers it to go hyper-local. Under that philosophy, in a town like Helena, you write about the Saints, the high schools and any athletes from that town who are successful. Unfortunately, MSU and UM will both fall by the wayside in comparison to anything having to directly do with Helena.

In newspapers, we are struggling. Bad. You all might not like the decline in coverage, but if it were up to ANY of the sports writers and editors in this state, we would cover EVERY SINGLE THING HAVING TO DO WITH MONTANA to the best of our ability. The problem is, we are all so freakin short staffed, it's not possible whatsoever. The IR couldn't cover the Cats and the Griz if they wanted to. They don't have the resources.

At the Chronicle, we are getting by because I'm on salary and I refuse to let our product slip (even though it has despite my efforts in both size and scope). It's a rare occasion that I'm awake and not doing something related to the Chron. We are also at a disadvantage statewide because the IR, Missoulian and Gazette are all owned by Lee, so they can share content. The Missoulian has a six-person staff, the Gazette is working with seven staffers. The IR has four full-timers. That's 17 people to cover different areas of the state and share content. We have two full-timers — Myself and Gidal.

The Tribune is down to three full-time and one part-time guy.

The point is, it's fine to be dissatisfied with the coverage of your local paper and we always love feedback. But you must understand that we are all handcuffed by money-hungry corporate f***ks who want to run newspapers as a business rather than an essential part to maintaining a free-flowing democracy. Or in the sports world, serving small communities in a rural state like Montana where sometimes the biggest news of the day is in the realm of athletics.

My only problem with your statement Colter I need to frame with a question. Did you get a raise when you moved from Washington. We all work for the money.

by **mtsportsfan** on Wed Oct 31, 2012 3:06 pm

TomCat88 wrote:That whole thing in the IR was awkward, wrapped in weird with a dash of bizarre.

First, you really shouldn't run a puff-piece right next to two stories about teammates that are in trouble. Second, I just skimmed thru it, but there was no mention of the trouble he has been in and this was a perfect opportunity for him to show some contrition. Lastly, as mentioned, there's been next nothing on Foster (HHS) and Sampson (CHS), which has all kinds of potential with them both being senior O linemen.

The second part has nothing to do with the IR since it was written by Bill Speltz of the Missoulian.

I also thought that the article was very strange! Especially the part about getting injured and only playing three games his senior year. I am pretty sure he wasn't injured when he was at the Rialto having a couple of cocktails during the season. I noticed Arnston didn't give any quotes for the article, but I am pretty sure he was asked.

I do know there will be an article on Samson and I believe there will be an articles on Foster and Bignell during the playoffs. The IR should steal Colters articles and print them. The IR has never been the same since Tomcat left them high and dry!

by **Colter_Nuanez** on Wed Oct 31, 2012 3:14 pm

I made way more money before I had a college degree working for my dad's drilling company and working for private fire contractors fighting wildland fires in the summers than I make now. I got a raise when I moved from Ellensburg, Washington to the Chronicle, but I made $24,000 total in a year and a half of work there. Once I was put on salary, the raise was basically pointless because now I don't get overtime even though I work six-day weeks that consistently include 15-hour Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. To be honest, I don't work for money. At all. I do this because it's my passion and a way for me to give back to my community, albeit a small one.

For those of you assuming I will up and leave Montana once a better job offer comes along, well I'm not so sure that's true. Montana is a mystical place filled with alluring stories and the voice you can have here when it comes to sports like Big Sky football is pretty tremendous.

For you Helena readers, check back on the blog for an article I wrote about Steven Foster (in case you missed it) for the Stephen F. Austin Game Day cover. Shaun Sampson will be the Cat-Griz Game Day cover and we will also have a profile on Brian Bignell that week.

by **Whisky_Ditch** on Wed Oct 31, 2012 3:38 pm

Can we as "enlightened" supporters do something about this. Great Falls is a swingtown when it comes to Cats and Griz. We've gained a pretty good foothold back there over the last 10 years and in my opinion this really hurts our identity in GF. Couldn't they hire a guy to send the "art" to Mansch and he could watch the game on TV and write the story? Or could they pick up the AP writeup and use that, but get it in the front page??? I don't understand this stuff, but there has to be a way to do something about this.

by **John K** on Wed Oct 31, 2012 3:45 pm

Colter_Nuanez wrote:
dakota wrote:Colture,

With that said, ( and I like the kid) the ir gives reports everytime Matt Miller asked to be excused to go the rest room at Boise?

what I dont get

------ you take all staff, all student body, and any former staff member, or former student at CC, and all those COMBINED numbers would still be thousands less than the number of alumni from MSU that live in Helena

is not the bottom line sales?

It's all a matter of philosophy. The bottom line is readers, yes, but many newspapers think the way to please readers it to go hyper-local. Under that philosophy, in a town like Helena, you write about the Saints, the high schools and any athletes from that town who are successful. Unfortunately, MSU and UM will both fall by the wayside in comparison to anything having to directly do with Helena.

In newspapers, we are struggling. Bad. You all might not like the decline in coverage, but if it were up to ANY of the sports writers and editors in this state, we would cover EVERY SINGLE THING HAVING TO DO WITH MONTANA to the best of our ability. The problem is, we are all so freakin short staffed, it's not possible whatsoever. The IR couldn't cover the Cats and the Griz if they wanted to. They don't have the resources.

At the Chronicle, we are getting by because I'm on salary and I refuse to let our product slip (even though it has despite my efforts in both size and scope). It's a rare occasion that I'm awake and not doing something related to the Chron. We are also at a disadvantage statewide because the IR, Missoulian and Gazette are all owned by Lee, so they can share content. The Missoulian has a six-person staff, the Gazette is working with seven staffers. The IR has four full-timers. That's 17 people to cover different areas of the state and share content. We have two full-timers — Myself and Gidal.

The Tribune is down to three full-time and one part-time guy.

The point is, it's fine to be dissatisfied with the coverage of your local paper and we always love feedback. But you must understand that we are all handcuffed by money-hungry corporate f***ks who want to run newspapers as a business rather than an essential part to maintaining a free-flowing democracy. Or in the sports world, serving small communities in a rural state like Montana where sometimes the biggest news of the day is in the realm of athletics.

I have noticed the trend of papers seeming to be more local-oriented than in the past. One thing I've always liked about the Tribune, is that they've always seemed to do a much better job of covering the entire state than any of the other papers, not just for sports, but for general news as well. The Gazette is not too bad for statewide coverage, but the Missoulian doesn't seem to think anything ever really happens, unless it happens west of the continental divide. Both the IR and the Chronicle seem to emphasize local coverage as well.

I fully empathize with the frustrations you and other sports writers must feel due to the shrinking of budgets and staff resources, but some of my complaints about the decline in quality of the Tribune sports section wouldn't seem to be solely due to having fewer resources. For example, I really miss the short blurbs they used to run about Lulay's BC Lions games. I can't imagine that it took all that much time and effort to pick up those stories, and print a few paragraphs about him and the team. Or the fact that sometimes they don't even include the boxscores with the stories for either the Cat or Griz games. It just seems to be a general decline in professionalism and quality, but it's been quite noticeable over the past year or so. I suppose that's at least partially due to the departure of Geise and Towne, with the two newbies taking their place.

by **DicTater** on Wed Oct 31, 2012 4:23 pm

The IR story on Stuberg actually ran in the Missoulian GameDay for the Griz game. The reason the IR has a lot more Griz coverage is because the Missoulian and the IR are both owned by Lee. IR gets free in depth coverage of the Griz.

by **TomCat88** on Wed Oct 31, 2012 5:13 pm

DicTater wrote:The IR story on Stuberg actually ran in the Missoulian GameDay for the Griz game. The reason the IR has a lot more Griz coverage is because the Missoulian and the IR are both owned by Lee. IR gets free in depth coverage of the Griz.

That's true, but they also have, and have had, free coverage from the Billings Gazette (Rachac) for years and didn't start using it until last year when someone got on Lee Enterprises' (after having no direct luck with the IR) case about it. The IR has improved vastly and it's great that they're going to get something out there about Sampson, Bignell and Foster.

In the end, like anything else, it's about equality. I don't think MSU fans are asking the media to give them more coverage than UM, just equal. It's a very reasonable request regardless of the structure of the newspaper business around the state. So if Lee doesn't own a newspaper in Bozeman, then it needs to shell out the necessary funds (or put out the effort to find a volunteer) to level the playing field. Otherwise they'll have to put up with the wrath of MSU fans.

by **WalkOn79** on Wed Oct 31, 2012 8:51 pm

St George wrote:The GF Trib has always sucked when it comes to MSU sports. Could be worse, the papers here in Idaho go to bed so early and are so lame we are lucky to even see a line score for the Big Sky schools.

I disagree. The Trib has not sucked until recently, and Colter nailed it. You want better, convince your neighbors to get a subscription.

by **LongTimeCatFan** on Wed Oct 31, 2012 9:41 pm

WalkOn79 wrote:
St George wrote:The GF Trib has always sucked when it comes to MSU sports. Could be worse, the papers here in Idaho go to bed so early and are so lame we are lucky to even see a line score for the Big Sky schools.

I disagree. The Trib has not sucked until recently, and Colter nailed it. You want better, convince your neighbors to get a subscription.

Nope, I'll buy a product worth buying, but not something that I HOPE will CHANGE into something worth buying. Hell, if I thought that worked, I'd vote for Obama.

by **John K** on Thu Nov 01, 2012 8:48 am

WalkOn79 wrote:
St George wrote:The GF Trib has always sucked when it comes to MSU sports. Could be worse, the papers here in Idaho go to bed so early and are so lame we are lucky to even see a line score for the Big Sky schools.

I disagree. The Trib has not sucked until recently, and Colter nailed it. You want better, convince your neighbors to get a subscription.

I agree with you. I've always thought the Trib was the best paper in the state, for both sports and overall, and was fairly balanced between the Cats and Griz. It's only in the past 6-12 months that things have really declined, In my opinion.

by **catsrback76** on Thu Nov 01, 2012 9:35 am

John K wrote:
WalkOn79 wrote:
St George wrote:The GF Trib has always sucked when it comes to MSU sports. Could be worse, the papers here in Idaho go to bed so early and are so lame we are lucky to even see a line score for the Big Sky schools.

I disagree. The Trib has not sucked until recently, and Colter nailed it. You want better, convince your neighbors to get a subscription.

I agree with you. I've always thought the Trib was the best paper in the state, for both sports and overall, and was fairly balanced between the Cats and Griz. It's only in the past 6-12 months that things have really declined, In my opinion.

I noticed when in Great Falls recently that the physical size of the paper is cut down to make it look like it's full. It is definitely not the same size it was a few years ago. So, this is an issue that the physical paper is dealing with. The ads are bigger and the stories smaller along with the size. I literally could "read" the paper in about 3 minutes. Not a good sign for the Trib IMO.

by **Colter_Nuanez** on Thu Nov 01, 2012 10:12 am

Well people, this place finally came back around to bite me in the butt.

Because of my comments and opinions expressed on this website, I have been terminated effective immediately.

Thanks for the ride, albeit a short one. Thanks for never holding punches, holding me accountable, ripping me when needed and making me better. This is part of my core audience here and I'm sad I won't get to share my passion with you anymore.

I'm out.

by **LTown Cat** on Thu Nov 01, 2012 10:21 am

Colter_Nuanez wrote:Well people, this place finally came back around to bite me in the butt.

Because of my comments and opinions expressed on this website, I have been terminated effective immediately.

Thanks for the ride, albeit a short one. Thanks for never holding punches, holding me accountable, ripping me when needed and making me better. This is part of my core audience here and I'm sad I won't get to share my passion with you anymore.

I'm out.

If true I am very saddened by this. I loved what you did for MSU. The Chronicle won't be able to replace you.