Industry News

Distinctly Montana Magazine

Distinctly Montana Magazine has been sold by founder Michael Blevins to Bill Muhlenfeld and Anthea George of Bozeman, Montana, according to John Cribb, Cribb, Greene & Associates, who represented the seller in the transaction.

Distinctly Montana Magazine is a high quality glossy product published quarterly and distributed throughout Montana and most of the nation. The magazine, founded in 2001, is a resource guide for all things Montana and includes local features, literary pieces, and high quality art and photography. Included in the sale is the magazine website at distinctlymontana.com.

According to Anthea George, "Distinctly Montana is a quality publication with a great concept and a focused mission. We look forward as new owners to bringing the best of Montana to residents and visitors alike."

Cribb, Greene & Associates is an eighty-seven year old publishing company merger and acquisition firm with offices in Bozeman, Montana and Charlottesville, Virginia.

Time to get in the "digital" trenches

February 19, 2009

Publishers and key managers must get digitally down-and-dirty by using all of their website functions on a constant basis

Potential customers of your website can be driven off (likely never to return) due to frustrating or nonsensical functionality. These can be simple issues like links that don't work, but can go well beyond to functions that simply aren't well thought out.

We have reviewed newspaper classified ad sites where the customer had to enter the classified ad, then all his personal information, then the credit card information, and then had to agree to purchase the ad -- before being told the cost of the ad! We suspect many potential advertisers choose to drop out when they realize they must agree to the purchase without knowing the amount. Another example is a community calender with no clearly evident link to send in calendar listings, or a list of the editorial department contacts in which the email address must be cut and pasted into the address bar rather than being set up as a link.

The shift to digital information for newspapers is far too important to leave to the "IT guys" to figure out and fix. Publishers, Editors, Ad Managers (and Presidents, CEOs, CFOs, COOs, etc.) must work with their websites constantly to understand and correct functionality issues.

We think two things will come out of management's use of websites:

First, the types of glitches described above will be corrected. Management doesn't need to know the technical end of website code to get these things fixed, they just need to know how the site should work. We don't know how to fix a web press, but we do know what it should do.

Second, and perhaps more importantly, we think publishers and managers will understand how to improve - and monetize - their newspaper websites if management is constantly using the sites. Frankly, newspaper management has grown up with old fashioned newspaper technology, and the general attitude is to ignore the digital side and let the IT guys deal with it. That time is past, and management must embrace and learn to love digital information distribution systems.

As research for this story Cribb, Greene & Associates commissioned two college students - a 23-year-old business major and a 26-year-old Journalism major - to prepare a Newspaper Website Functionality Report. The Report is an evaluation of one newspaper website in which all functions were tested and reviewed. For the full results of the Report please go here.

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