A new look for the BVD

Welcome to the new and improved Blackfoot Valley Dispatch. This issue marks our first as a broadsheet since the mid 1990's. It's a return to a format we hope our readers will appreciate.

Last week, the BVD earned a somewhat dubious spot in the history of newspaper publishing in Montana when our final issue in the tabloid format became the last newspaper printed on the Goss Community press at River's Edge Printing in Great Fall. The Great Falls Tribune wound down its press operations July 14 as River's Edge closed its doors.

Darryl Flowers, publisher of the Fairfield Sun Times and a former pressman himself, was on hand to record the final press runs. He noted the Tribune also ran a big Goss Metroliner that was used for printing the Tribune and a few community newspapers.

The July 13 issue of the Tribune was the last issue printed in Great Falls before production moved to Helena. The Tribune's July 14 issue was the first to be printed on the Independent Record's presses.

Darryl reported that the last papers printed on the Metroliner were, like the BVD, locally owned weeklies: Wolf Point's Northern Plains Independent and the Culbertson Community News.

Word that River's Edge would be closing reached us at the BVD May 22, thanks to a random Facebook post by an old friend in Great Falls. The news came as we were re-evaluating the future of the Dispatch. We were considering options from changing our design or our format, to changing how often we published (we even briefly consider whether going to a monthly magazine would be feasible), to calling it quits entirely.

The response from our readers, however, showed that most really enjoy having a weekly, local, printed newspaper (even if it's just for the fun of looking for typing errors).

During a trip to Fairfield in early June to look for advice from Darryl, he suggested we make the switch to a full broadsheet format, which he uses at the Sun Times. Many of todays newspapers, including major dailies, are trending to narrower print sizes as they shift their focus to online content. In print, the IR and Trib are now basically the same width as our old tabloid format, just five or so inches taller.

So the idea of changing to a notably larger format, which also allows more freedom of design and ease of layout, as well as larger photographs and more versatility in our page counts, made a lot of sense as we looked for ways to bring our readers and advertisers the best newspaper we can. Despite the challenges facing us all in the COVID-19 economy, we hope they will appreciate having a local paper, focused on local news and events, that looks and feels like a true newspaper.

The change to printing with the Livingston Enterprise brings us great print quality, but it has forced us to make a few changes, including earlier deadlines and the return to Thursday publication, but we believe the end product will be worth it.

While we're still committed to print, for those of you who prefer online news, we also plan to tweak our website a bit as part of our effort to improve the BVD.

Don't be surprised if you find a few mistakes in this issue. It involves several significant changes for us and we've still got some work to do. We're still sorting out many details as we move ahead, but our new format is just one of the steps we're taking as we try to provide better service and to keep the BVD alive as we mark our 40th year of publication.