According to a blog post by the editor of the Missoulian, the Great Falls Tribune newspaper is in for some major changes – and job losses in 2011:

Gannett Corp. announced Tuesday that its newspapers will be designed at five “hubs” nationwide: Asbury, Des Moines, Louisville, Nashville, Phoenix.

That means local newspapers will ship off their stories and photos to page designers who are thousands of miles away. And those people will determine how the next day’s newspaper looks. They’ll position the stories and photos on the pages.

That means the Great Falls Tribune will be designed in Phoenix, Ariz.

By the way, Gannett owns the Great Falls Tribune.

I did not see anything about this change in the Tribune. I imagine we’ll learn of the impact in the not too distant future. It was kind of odd to read about the Tribune undergoing changes from an editor in Missoula – but I guess the editor felt it was a terrible move and decided to blog about it. The Missoulian newspaper is owned by Lee Newspapers.

The newspaper business is having a tough time these days and has had a tough go of it ever since the internet became such a major part of most everyone’s daily lives. I still subscribe to the “dead tree” version of my local paper. It’s part of my morning ritual (right after pouring a cup of coffee). Soon after reading the local paper, I am on Twitter and Facebook and other parts of the web getting the latest news.

They agree:

I was happy to read that the Editorial Board of the Tribune agreed with my commentary yesterday about making the road to Malmstrom AFB a little more professional looking. You can read their viewpoint HERE.