by Travis Mateer
Do you read The Pulp? If you’ve lived in Missoula for awhile, you might be aware of the news organization that finally emerged from the rubble of the Missoula Independent, which was shuttered by Matt Gibson in 2018, but did you know they just won an award?
Yep, this new news effort that posts articles with less frequency than a donation-based blogger is celebrating an award they recently got. Fantastic!
On Thursday night, at the Independent News Sustainability Summit, The Pulp was named “New Business of the Year” 🏆 by LION Publishers, a national organization dedicated to local news entrepreneurship and sustainability.
The award honors The Pulp for its fundraising strategy during the launch of this nonprofit a little less than a year ago, as well as its “incredible content.”
We’re blown away.
Yes, I’m blown away as well. Is the bar really this low that a barely noticeable news org is getting kudos for throwing out a few articles once a week?
One of those articles lovingly cups the figurative ballsack of a Denver-based developer as he tells the reporter about how much he loves Missoula (emphasis mine):
Kiely Wilson, the principal and cofounder of the property’s developer, Pando Holdings, is clearly attuned to the city’s pervading anxiety. In his presentation to the city, he expressed lifelong love for Montana despite his Denver roots and said the development would help the city’s housing crunch.
“Our goal with this project is not just to develop real estate but to create a neighborhood that will be an asset for the area and that aligns with the goals and objectives of this city,” he told the council. “I’m proud the work we do will help with local housing attainability.”
This lovely developer propaganda is coming from Pando Holdings, a company that partners with other developers, like the Rockefeller Group, to create luxury housing for those who can afford it.
Later in the article we discover a correction had to be made because the reporter thought Mayor Davis cast a vote when she didn’t. Here’s proof the bar is LOW when it comes to local media.
No, I don’t like what I’m reading. I don’t like the quality, frequency, or online-only approach to providing local context on critical topics, like housing and homelessness. That’s why I didn’t wait around like your conventional journalists did when the Montana media landscape contracted.
If Hunter Pauli wanted enough to afford a month of rent in a market-rate Missoula studio apartment, he should have asked for $1,500. And, if Hunter Pauli really wants to cover “extremism in the North American West”, then he should be paying CLOSE attention to the kind of journalism I’m doing on that front, like last month’s article, titled White Supremacist Story Time.
If YOU appreciate how I tell local stories, please consider donating to Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF). It’s been nearly two weeks since the last donation, which is even less frequent than The Pulp‘s new postings, so what are you waiting for? Help out a REAL muckraker TODAY!
Thanks for reading!