Rural News Network gains momentum

By Emily Darrell
J-School Web Reporter

One day last year, amid the bacon-scented air of Paul’s Pancake Parlor in Missoula, J-School alumna Courtney Lowery cooked up an idea.

The idea was this: take a group of UM J-School students — photo, broadcast and print — and have them start an online newspaper in the tiny town of Dutton, Mont. (population 389 in the 2000 census). The students would write and shoot stories as well as enlisting the townspeople to learn online journalism skills and create their own stories.

photo by Sepp Jannotta

The Dutton Co-Op

Photojournalism professor Keith Graham thought the idea was a great one, professor Michael Downs wrote up a grant, and the Rural News Network was born.

“It was really Courtney’s brainchild,” Graham said.

Lowery, co-founder and managing editor of the online news site New West, has always had a strong affection for her hometown of Dutton. “Dutton did some amazing things for me as a child and an adult,” said Lowery, a 2002 graduate of the J-School.

Lowery said she’s seen the town depopulate throughout her life, as young people like her leave for places with more job opportunities. When the town’s newspaper dissolved in 2000, Lowery saw the hole it created in the town’s spirit. 

Photo by Sarah Welliver

Sue Dunning administers a flu shot to Darrell Goodhundson at her clinic on Main Avenue in Dutton.

However, she said: “There are a lot of people who really care about the community. There is still a lot of vibrancy in that town.” 

Starting in the fall semester of 2006, a class of six students led by Lowery and Graham began taking trips to Dutton to get the project off the ground.

“At first I think they had no idea what we were doing,” said senior print major Tad Sooter of the people of Dutton. Sooter has been involved in the project in both the fall and spring semesters, as have most of the other students.

Though Sooter said the townspeople were initially a bit reticent, they quickly became very involved.

“Last time I was up there I got swarmed by high school kids at the café,” Sooter said.

The paper, called the Dutton Country Courier has involved Dutton residents of all ages.

The mayor, the town librarian, the high school journalism teacher and a few high school students all have taken an active role in the paper.

“I’ve loved the class,” Sooter said. “It’s getting back to the roots of journalism, getting people the basic information they need.” 

Graduate photojournalism student Sepp Jannotta has also found the class extremely rewarding.

 “I’ve worked at rural newspapers and I think they’re full of amazing opportunities and lots of journalistic challenges,” Jannotta said. “It’s still up in the air how actively [the Country Courier] will involve the town, though there’s some pretty solid momentum at this point.”

Though Dutton is small and residents have to drive about 30 miles to get all but the most basic of groceries, Lowery said, “It’s fairly well-connected.”

Photo by Sarah Welliver

Garrett Fritz walks towards his grandpa's truck. Because his family lives so far away, the school asked the Fritzes to meet the bus at Knees School.

“The [Great Falls] Tribune has reach out there. A lot of people read the Choteau paper or the Great Falls paper.”

Next year the J-School will offer students the chance to participate in the Rural News Network in a different location. The class will start an online publication in the eastern Montana town of Crow Agency, where graduate print student Mary Hudetz, who participated in the Rural News Network in Dutton in the fall, spent part of her childhood.

Lowery said the Rural News Network experiment has been great fun. She sees the project as the perfect culmination of her journalistic passions: “My two babies are online journalism and rural journalism.”

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