(Nov 14, 20205) — Rutgers University and the Local News Information Consortium will release a new study of Montana’s news and information ecosystem on Wednesday, November 19: Breadth and Depth of Montana Local News Coverage.
Produced by LNIC co-founder Dr. Matt Weber in The Computational Media Lab at Rutgers University and funded by the LOR Foundation, the report analyzes the topics, geography, and locality of 26,740 news articles from 191 Montana media outlets.
Key findings include:
- 21 counties across the state produce less than 10% of all news content in the state of Montana.
- Eight counties produce half of all news content in the state of Montana.
- Western, and especially Northwestern, Montana has the greatest density of local news creators.
- There is a negative relationship between population and news content production.
Weber and Daniel Read of the LOR Foundation will present the report and discuss the findings on a webinar Friday, November 21, 2025 3:00 PM ET / 1:00 PM MT. Registration is now open and the session will be recorded and posted on the LNIC website.
