Still 'Walking the Beat,' just on a different path

Hello everyone. See that little sliver of yellow up there on the lower left-hand side of this stylized map of Montana? That's me. Or at least it was me.

So this is a screenshot from an October 2024 article on Axios about "news deserts" nationwide (link: https://www.axios.com/2024/10/24/most-us-counties-have-little-to-no-loca...) that I happened to come across at the time and it has stuck with me ever since. I think I may have even written a column about it. The yellow represents counties that are on the watch list as being at imminent risk of becoming a "news desert," as in a place with no local news sources. That sliver is Anaconda-Deer Lodge County, and the one local news source that was holding the line in ADLC up through last week was the Anaconda Leader. The place where I had "Walked the Beat" these past 15 years and a little more besides. Until now.

But I have to say, as overwhelming as it was to have to stuff 15 years' worth of, well, stuff, into a couple of big cardboard boxes that I think had been used for shipping milk cartons but are now filled to bursting with the flotsam and jetsam of working in journalism for nearly a third of my life at the Leader -- papers, books, photos, a stress ball and stress jar (could have used more of those), a Seahawks mouse pad, and my favorite, an anti-partisan flyer with the "This Is Fine" dog meme I've had pinned behind my desk for two years -- okay, this is a long sentence, even for me. Let me start again.

As overwhelming as that was, I cannot even begin to express how completely and utterly bowled over I am by all the people who have been reaching out to me, on the phone, via text, email, passers-by on the street, at the grocery store, everywhere, and I'm sure there have been many more besides who have tried, especially on the Bookface (I'm sorry, I haven't used social media in months, but it looks like that's going to have to change). I have never experienced anything like that in my entire life -- never, ever could have even remotely imagined it when this broke 29-year-old first moved halfway across the country with no idea what he was going to do, lucked into a reporting job but felt like he needed more so he left it after a year -- and then came back three years later and has been here ever since. I'm a man of many words, sometimes too many, but this time I am completely at a loss for words other than to say, thank you.

But even with this loss -- yet another one that this great-hearted community has had to endure -- I wish to assure you all that I am still here, and I very much intend to continue to be. Anaconda is my home, I have been deeply privileged to be here and to tell this town's stories, and I will continue to do so as long as I'm able. It will be in a different format under a different banner, but the stories and the storyteller will remain. Please keep an eye on this space, and "stay tuned" for the rest of that story, which I hope will be coming very soon.

Thank you again, all the best, and I will be in touch,

James S. Rosien
Anaconda Leader Editor (former)

- 30 -