BILLINGS — The Billings Times has delivered news to the community for 133 years but Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024, marked the end of an era as it stopped printing the newspaper.
“It’s bittersweet, but you know, I've been working for this for a while now,” said Scott Turner, owner of The Billings Times. "Print newspaper is definitely in major decline."
It's a tough pill to swallow considering Turner's history with the newspaper.
“I guess I started out in high school as a delivery boy for my dad," Turner said.
His dad, Bill Turner, worked at the Times in 1960 but bought the business in 1978 — a time when print journalism looked very different from what it is today.
"We're just the most recent victim of changing industry," added Turner.
"It's not as bad as it could have been, but we've all been waiting for this forever," said longtime print journalist Ed Kemmick, who wrote the final column announcing the end of The Times.
Kemmick has been reporting in Montana since the late 1970s. He spent the majority of his career in Billings, writing for the Billings Gazette, his own online newspaper, Last Best News, and The Billings Times.
"It just seems like everybody now turns to the internet or to a handful of big online newspapers," Kemmick said.
According to a Northwestern University study, nearly 3,000 newspapers across the U.S. have closed their doors since 2005. Factors like low readership and a lack of advertising dollars are the main drivers.
"I just don't know how we ever get back to covering things in the depth we used to locally without the advertising base that newspapers used to have," said Kemmick.
With newsrooms not as staffed as they used to be, Kemmick said it affects the way local journalists are reporting.
“I think the biggest change for me and, you know, watching what people do now, is how often we were given a lot of time to work on important stories," Kemmick said.
"Who knows how much longer the daily newspaper or even a weekly like us can survive," said Turner.
Kemmick, however, is hopeful.
"My hope is that people just remember that they need to know more things about the places they live and that they give people who still have that drive to write about those things a chance to do it by supporting local journalism, supporting businesses that support local journalism," Kemmick said.
Newspaper production may have ended at The Billings Times but the business also provides a full line of commercial printing services at 2919 Montana Avenue and is still open for business.
