The Bobcat Nation

This paper always has more griz coverage these days, but today on lunch I decided to check for any Bobcat news or anything and couldn't help but notice that the first 16 (yes, SIXTEEN) links are either griz-related, or else neutral/both schools. You have to scroll clear down to the 17th link to see that on May 12th, there was an article regarding MSU track and field.

http://billingsgazette.com/sports/colle ... onference/

From the top:
1) (Both) 6 track and field athletes to represent Montana at NCAA Division I Outdoor Championships
2) (griz) 22 Montana football players make UM Spring 2018 Dean's and President's Lists
3) (griz) Former Montana Grizzly Will Cherry's team, KK Cedevita Zagreb, drops Croatian League championship opener
4) (griz) Former Montana Grizzlies guard Will Cherry to play for Croatian League championship
5) (griz) Spring tour 'therapeutic' for Montana Grizzlies athletic director Kent Haslam
6) (griz) Former Montana Grizzlies forward Fabijan Krslovic makes professional debut in Australia
7) (griz) Report: Ahmaad Rorie returning to Montana Grizzlies for senior season
8 ) (griz) How the Montana Grizzlies can fill their 1 remaining scholarship since the NLI deadline has passed
9) (griz) Montana Grizzlies sign Australian high school senior Ben Carter
10) (griz) Report: Montana Grizzlies freshman transfer Admir Besovic heading to Santa Fe College
11) (griz) Montana Grizzly women's cross country, men's tennis programs earn NCAA Public Recognition Awards
12) (griz) Tennessee Titans waive former Montana Grizzly Ryan McKinley
13) (griz) Lady Griz basketball lands Arizona transfer guard Sammy Fatkin
14) (BOTH) Montana State captures second straight Brawl of the Wild series over Montana
15) (Both) Montana athletes win titles at Big Sky Conference track championships
16) (griz) Former Montana Grizzly defensive back Justin Strong invited to New Orleans Saints rookie minicamp

So in the last 16 stories, 13 are about the griz or former griz players, and 3 are about both schools or neutral.
ZERO are about MSU alone.

My guess is that all the Griz stories originated at the Misdoulian. The Missoulian and Gazette have the same parent company Lee. Until the Bozeman Chronicle becomes a Lee newspaper don’t expect much to change.

If I were a Cat fan in Billings I would cancel my subscription. The owners and editors don't care about these complaints unless it starts to equal subscription losses.

Vote with your feet.

Unfortunately most kids don’t get the paper. Will be interest to see if they go the way of buggy whip makers. Of course some may deservingly so get there faster than others.


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91catAlum wrote:This paper always has more griz coverage these days, but today on lunch I decided to check for any Bobcat news or anything and couldn't help but notice that the first 16 (yes, SIXTEEN) links are either griz-related, or else neutral/both schools. You have to scroll clear down to the 17th link to see that on May 12th, there was an article regarding MSU track and field.

http://billingsgazette.com/sports/colle ... onference/

From the top:
1) (Both) 6 track and field athletes to represent Montana at NCAA Division I Outdoor Championships
2) (griz) 22 Montana football players make UM Spring 2018 Dean's and President's Lists
3) (griz) Former Montana Grizzly Will Cherry's team, KK Cedevita Zagreb, drops Croatian League championship opener
4) (griz) Former Montana Grizzlies guard Will Cherry to play for Croatian League championship
5) (griz) Spring tour 'therapeutic' for Montana Grizzlies athletic director Kent Haslam
6) (griz) Former Montana Grizzlies forward Fabijan Krslovic makes professional debut in Australia
7) (griz) Report: Ahmaad Rorie returning to Montana Grizzlies for senior season
8 ) (griz) How the Montana Grizzlies can fill their 1 remaining scholarship since the NLI deadline has passed
9) (griz) Montana Grizzlies sign Australian high school senior Ben Carter
10) (griz) Report: Montana Grizzlies freshman transfer Admir Besovic heading to Santa Fe College
11) (griz) Montana Grizzly women's cross country, men's tennis programs earn NCAA Public Recognition Awards
12) (griz) Tennessee Titans waive former Montana Grizzly Ryan McKinley
13) (griz) Lady Griz basketball lands Arizona transfer guard Sammy Fatkin
14) (BOTH) Montana State captures second straight Brawl of the Wild series over Montana
15) (Both) Montana athletes win titles at Big Sky Conference track championships
16) (griz) Former Montana Grizzly defensive back Justin Strong invited to New Orleans Saints rookie minicamp

So in the last 16 stories, 13 are about the griz or former griz players, and 3 are about both schools or neutral.
ZERO are about MSU alone.

I tried something like this several months ago.

The plan was to count Cat and griz articles each day. I would leave out anything that just a score, e.g. some general conference score summary. Jizboi were easily out front by 5:3-ish by the time I decided it was too much effort. It was too difficult to maintain because the dates of the articles change, so you don't really know when any one article originated and it became tough to remember if I had already counted an article.

But yeah, the Gazette should be embarrassed. Sadly, we know they're far from it.

I still have my screenshots from March that show 20+ jiz articles in a row.

Just curious, but does MSU advertise in the Gazette? For example, who pays for the Cat Griz circular that goes in the paper for the game? That would be quite a statement if the MSU said no more advertising dollars until we see some comparable coverage. If not athletics advertising, maybe the school does advertising for jobs fairs, school advertising, etc. If the school doesn’t advertise at all in the Gazette, I bet some MSU alums that own or manage businesses in Billings could make a statement.

I have a feeling boycotting one of Lee Enterprises papers won't make much of a difference to them:

http://lee.net/markets/

Cat Grad wrote:I have a feeling boycotting one of Lee Enterprises papers won't make much of a difference to them:

http://lee.net/markets/

I think you are wrong. Newspapers are facing declining circulation and a hit in ad revenue is huge. It has been a couple of years for me and I can’t recall specifics but I think a full page ad can run into the thousands. That would get the attention of the editor.

Cataholic wrote:

Cat Grad wrote:I have a feeling boycotting one of Lee Enterprises papers won't make much of a difference to them:

http://lee.net/markets/

I think you are wrong. Newspapers are facing declining circulation and a hit in ad revenue is huge. It has been a couple of years for me and I can’t recall specifics but I think a full page ad can run into the thousands. That would get the attention of the editor.

Yeah like you have any choice of papers in Montana. Bunch of weekly, gazzete and great falls trib cover 3/4 of state.

Cataholic wrote:

Cat Grad wrote:I have a feeling boycotting one of Lee Enterprises papers won't make much of a difference to them:

http://lee.net/markets/

I think you are wrong. Newspapers are facing declining circulation and a hit in ad revenue is huge. It has been a couple of years for me and I can’t recall specifics but I think a full page ad can run into the thousands. That would get the attention of the editor.

That would be a fascinating study, in my estimation. However, I don't feel it is representative of the present student body of MSU; i.e., after reading the latest BOR enrollment data, it is my assertion the present recruiting efforts are focused primarily on non-resident population centers. That is to say, out of state and international students drawn to MSU for aspects not aligned with athletics. Without checking or posting the data link, I believe over 50 percent of the student population is in fact nonresident.

Where I do have a concern, given Lee Enterprise circulation numbers in its entirety is greater than 900k daily, is that the Billings paper does not cover Rocky or Eastern as well as the sister papers in Helena and Butte cover Carroll and Tech. The Missoula Group does a decent job covering their local college team (the Grizzlies) but it seems to me, for whatever reason, the Billings paper would rather cover Wyoming athletics than any of the Montana schools.

What fascinates me to this day is why the number of Montana track and field athletes and basketball players (primarily female) are leaving the state and experiencing success in higher profile programs. I wonder why that is happening.

I never paid any attention to The Gazette until I joined Bobcat Nation. Ever since then The same complaints have come up every year. There are just some very reliable things to complain about, like the East bleachers. If we can hijack this thread and morph it into one that complains about the bleachers, it could be the perfect thread. Similar to the perfect country song from a few years back.

allcat wrote:I never paid any attention to The Gazette until I joined Bobcat Nation. Ever since then The same complaints have come up every year. There are just some very reliable things to complain about, like the East bleachers. If we can hijack this thread and morph it into one that complains about the bleachers, it could be the perfect thread. Similar to the perfect country song from a few years back.

Did they take your ankle bracelet off the day yo mamma got out of prison...

Cat Grad wrote:

Cataholic wrote:

Cat Grad wrote:I have a feeling boycotting one of Lee Enterprises papers won't make much of a difference to them:

http://lee.net/markets/

I think you are wrong. Newspapers are facing declining circulation and a hit in ad revenue is huge. It has been a couple of years for me and I can’t recall specifics but I think a full page ad can run into the thousands. That would get the attention of the editor.

That would be a fascinating study, in my estimation. However, I don't feel it is representative of the present student body of MSU; i.e., after reading the latest BOR enrollment data, it is my assertion the present recruiting efforts are focused primarily on non-resident population centers. That is to say, out of state and international students drawn to MSU for aspects not aligned with athletics. Without checking or posting the data link, I believe over 50 percent of the student population is in fact nonresident.

Where I do have a concern, given Lee Enterprise circulation numbers in its entirety is greater than 900k daily, is that the Billings paper does not cover Rocky or Eastern as well as the sister papers in Helena and Butte cover Carroll and Tech. The Missoula Group does a decent job covering their local college team (the Grizzlies) but it seems to me, for whatever reason, the Billings paper would rather cover Wyoming athletics than any of the Montana schools.

What fascinates me to this day is why the number of Montana track and field athletes and basketball players (primarily female) are leaving the state and experiencing success in higher profile programs. I wonder why that is happening.

I think your observations are accurate for the most part. Non-residents are a key demographic at MSU and are critical to MSU financially because they pay twice as much as residents. We should be marketing to out of state students. Even at twice the tuition rate of a resident student, MSU can still be a bargain out of state residents. University of Colorado charges over $30,000 a year for a resident student. MSU looks pretty attractive and we should seek those prospective students.

I can’t blame the Gazette for not covering Rocky or Eastern. Rocky is a small school where the area high schools rival them in attendance. Eastern does not field a football program. I don’t understand their infatuation with Wyoming except that they are the closest non-Big Sky institution. Last I looked, MSU was drawing crowds similar in size to Wyoming. The article below is from 2013 before they made a Coaching change, but they only had 13,000 in attendance at their last home game.

https://www.google.com/amp/trib.com/opi ... 0.amp.html

Tech and Carrol have seen crowds of 5,000 for big games, usually against each other or Western. They have big followings in each respective community. They also have local reporters that cover every event.

The Cat Griz insert the Lee Newspapers do every year is a big revenue generator. You look at all the ads and I expect that at least half the advertisers are Cats. I bet that one game day publication generates well over $100,000 in ad revenue. That is a decent size stick to that the editor should listen to the complaints.

I think the Grizette lack of MSU coverage is easy to explain: they don’t have a local beat reporter for MSU. A simple solution would be to pick up the occasional story from Colter or MSU or even the Chronicle.

allcat wrote:I never paid any attention to The Gazette until I joined Bobcat Nation. Ever since then The same complaints have come up every year. There are just some very reliable things to complain about, like the East bleachers. If we can hijack this thread and morph it into one that complains about the bleachers, it could be the perfect thread. Similar to the perfect country song from a few years back.

So we shouldn’t talk about it? Do you expect the problem will just go away if we ignore it?

Cataholic wrote:

Cat Grad wrote:

Cataholic wrote:

Cat Grad wrote:I have a feeling boycotting one of Lee Enterprises papers won't make much of a difference to them:

http://lee.net/markets/

I think you are wrong. Newspapers are facing declining circulation and a hit in ad revenue is huge. It has been a couple of years for me and I can’t recall specifics but I think a full page ad can run into the thousands. That would get the attention of the editor.

That would be a fascinating study, in my estimation. However, I don't feel it is representative of the present student body of MSU; i.e., after reading the latest BOR enrollment data, it is my assertion the present recruiting efforts are focused primarily on non-resident population centers. That is to say, out of state and international students drawn to MSU for aspects not aligned with athletics. Without checking or posting the data link, I believe over 50 percent of the student population is in fact nonresident.

Where I do have a concern, given Lee Enterprise circulation numbers in its entirety is greater than 900k daily, is that the Billings paper does not cover Rocky or Eastern as well as the sister papers in Helena and Butte cover Carroll and Tech. The Missoula Group does a decent job covering their local college team (the Grizzlies) but it seems to me, for whatever reason, the Billings paper would rather cover Wyoming athletics than any of the Montana schools.

What fascinates me to this day is why the number of Montana track and field athletes and basketball players (primarily female) are leaving the state and experiencing success in higher profile programs. I wonder why that is happening.

I think your observations are accurate for the most part. Non-residents are a key demographic at MSU and are critical to MSU financially because they pay twice as much as residents. We should be marketing to out of state students. Even at twice the tuition rate of a resident student, MSU can still be a bargain out of state residents. University of Colorado charges over $30,000 a year for a resident student. MSU looks pretty attractive and we should seek those prospective students.

I can’t blame the Gazette for not covering Rocky or Eastern. Rocky is a small school where the area high schools rival them in attendance. Eastern does not field a football program. I don’t understand their infatuation with Wyoming except that they are the closest non-Big Sky institution. Last I looked, MSU was drawing crowds similar in size to Wyoming. The article below is from 2013 before they made a Coaching change, but they only had 13,000 in attendance at their last home game.

https://www.google.com/amp/trib.com/opi ... 0.amp.html

Tech and Carrol have seen crowds of 5,000 for big games, usually against each other or Western. They have big followings in each respective community. They also have local reporters that cover every event.

The Cat Griz insert the Lee Newspapers do every year is a big revenue generator. You look at all the ads and I expect that at least half the advertisers are Cats. I bet that one game day publication generates well over $100,000 in ad revenue. That is a decent size stick to that the editor should listen to the complaints.

I think the Grizette lack of MSU coverage is easy to explain: they don’t have a local beat reporter for MSU. A simple solution would be to pick up the occasional story from Colter or MSU or even the Chronicle.

Since Norm Clark (?) left Billings, I haven't paid much attention to their paper. I enjoy reading what Jeff Welch writes but his expertise is being utilized elsewhere for whatever reason.

If you read the financials of Lee Enterprises, I think you'll understand what I was alluding to: our share out here is a mere drop in the bucket in their finances. I'd go so far as to state they maintain the Montana papers just for writeoffs.

Colter and Brook are doing a good job with their online coverage. Let me point out an aspect that has bothered me about sports coverage in Montana for several years--our universities SIDs. We openly mock their inability to even get the rosters updated.

One can speculate what is going to happen to the Comical. Either go under or sell. Rarely do we see media share employees or their work.

All in all, however, Montana has problems much larger than our small college football coverage. The thought that a society gets the leadership it deserves is somewhat topical today. Check out the financial condition of our surrounding states. Both Dakotas doing well, Wyoming and to a certain extent, Idaho. Correlate the collegiate athletic programs to the financial health of those states, if you will. (Idaho and ISU both have "leadership" issues traced back to Montana).

It never ceases to amaze me how we in this state can't seem to get our public schools equitably funded. Great Falls public schools are experiencing severe contracted budget reductions and other systems are building, breaking away from each other. Recall not that many years ago when the people of Big Sky wanted some assistance from Bozeman? 44 kids in Big Sky was 14 percent of the Bozeman High School budget. Big Sky built their own state of the art high school. Billings and Helena are going to see part of their community break away.

Look at the crock the BOR just went through. The MUS has approximately 26k FTE students in the six schools. Nearly 17k attend MSU. And MSU has an acceptance rate of between 60 and 70 percent.

Sometimes, a lack of information is a good thing. Let the school in Missoula continue to stress their athletic accomplishments relative small college football and ignore the rapid contraction of academic programs.

At least they corrected their mistake by bringing Rachac back.

Cataholic wrote:

allcat wrote:I never paid any attention to The Gazette until I joined Bobcat Nation. Ever since then The same complaints have come up every year. There are just some very reliable things to complain about, like the East bleachers. If we can hijack this thread and morph it into one that complains about the bleachers, it could be the perfect thread. Similar to the perfect country song from a few years back.

So we shouldn’t talk about it? Do you expect the problem will just go away if we ignore it?

I just don't think it will ever go away. Obviously we can talk about it, and I have no solutions. It just is one of those subjects that there is no answer to.

Oh c'mon, you guys have a great news source, the Bozeman Chronicle..............

I've noticed the trend as well. Here is my theory as to why it is like this. Most of the journalism majors, print and TV, come out of Missoula and work at local papers and TV stations. So they will prop up their failing university to make them look better in the eyes of their readers.

Captain Obvious.

Sorry. Couldn’t help myself.


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