Billings Gazette
Encyclopedia
The Billings Gazette is the largest newspaper in Montana and Northern Wyoming. It is geographically one of the largest distributed newspapers in the nation.
Each day carriers deliver more than 45,000 daily copies and that number increases to 50,000 on Sunday. To accomplish this 450 independent carriers and bundle haulers drive in excess of 12,000 miles to deliver papers in more than 120 different towns across more than 105,000 square miles (roughly the size of Iowa and Illinois combined).
• The first newspaper in Billings was published in 1882.
• The first edition of The Gazette was published May 3, 1885, on a single sheet of paper.
• The Billings Gazette moved into its current building on July 20, 1968– 42 years ago.
• The Billings Gazette facility is approximately 94,000 sq. ft. and employs more than 200 people. There are people working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• The Billings Gazette celebrated its 125th birthday in 2010
NEWSROOM:
• There are 4 sports reporters and 3 desk editors who work from 3 p.m. until midnight capturing scores so results can be immediately uploaded to GazPrep Sports blog and printed in the next edition of the newspaper.
• The Billings Gazette has 17 reporters in the building, one news reporter in Cody, WY, and 3 news reporters in Helena. The team of reporters covers different subjects such as:
o Local Crime and Courts
o Local Government
o Business
o Entertainment
o Outdoors
o Local high school, college, and pro sports
o Health
o Education
o Lifestyles
They gather information and write the story. Their stories are transmitted to their team editors who proofread it and make changes. The story goes to the copy desk where it receives another check. The copy editors are the ones who write the headlines.
The Billings Gazette print 3 editions of The Gazette every day: local, State, and Wyoming. The Wyoming edition is printed first because it has the farthest to travel.
ONLINE & VIDEO REPORTING:
The Billings Gazette is a premier multimedia news source-including print, online and now on-the-go with billingsgazette.com/mobile. The Billings Gazette produces video and web elements such as podcasts and video features.
• 30,000 to 50,000 unique visitors log onto billingsgazette.com each day for breaking news, video, and to search online real estate, automobile, and recruitment classified ads.
• Outdoors for kids has a variety of things for kids including stories, games, and videos from Jeff the Nature Guy from the Beartooth Nature Center.
PHOTOGRAPHERS:
• 6 full-time photographers shoot still for news stories, advertising or our niche publications such as Magic Magazine and for online.
• All the photos you see in The Billings Gazette are electronic images.
• The photographers and videographers are on-call 24/7 for breaking news.
VIDEO/AUDIO STUDIO:
• The Billings Gazette has a soundproof studio where podcasts, video interview segments and live performances are recorded.
UNIVERSAL DARK ROOM (UDR):
• All color photos are produced in 4 colors
• UDR is responsible for toning the photos for the paper. This is to ensure the colors are correct once they are printed on the page.
PLATE MAKING ROOM:
• Once the story has been written, proofed, photos shot and toned, the entire page is laid out; a full page replica is sent from the computer to two large processors for plate making.
• The plate is a piece of aluminum 12 one-thousandths thick and is coated with an emulsion that is sensitive to light.
• The “Thermal Plate Technology” processor uses a laser to transfer the digital image from the editor’s terminal onto the printing plate. The image is transferred by laser then baked into the light sensitive substance. The oven bakes the plate up to 400 degrees. The plate travels through the developer, which washes away any remaining substance not touched by the laser.
• The plate is transferred over a series of belts to the automatic plate bender. The bender puts folds in the plate so that they will stay on the press cylinder.
PRESS:
• The Billings Gazette uses Goss-Metro Offset Presses. The press sits on a separate foundation due to its weight, 40 tons. The press stretches nearly 3 stories.
• One ton rolls of newsprint are loaded up through the floor to the press. Each roll would measure 6.5 miles in length if unfurled. The Billings Gazette uses approximately 5600 rolls per month.
• The plates are locked onto a steel cylinder in the center. It spins, and ink and water are placed on the plate. The ink as oil and adheres to the printed images; water adheres to the clear areas. As the cylinder spins the ink is printed onto a rubber blanket and from there onto the paper. The plate and paper never touch; this is called off-set printing.
• The paper is transferred over the former board at the top where it’s folded in half, then through the folder where it is combined into a section. All the pages are printed in numerical order.
• There is a 12-inch blade which cuts the newspaper.
• The paper is folded in half again and sent out onto an overhead conveyor that takes it across to our distribution department.
• The presses run from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. The Billings Gazette prints approximately 45,000 copies daily and 50,000 copies on Sundays. Each copy of the paper is read by 2.4 people on average- this means we reach approximately 102,000 people each weekday and over 126,000 every Sunday
INK:
• The ink colors we use are cyan, magenta and yellow (which are soy-based) and black.
• Ink totes weigh 4,000 lbs. of which 3,000 lbs. is ink.
• 6 totes of each color of ink are used per year.
DISTRIBUTION:
• The Billings Gazette built a new $5.25 million state of the art Distribution center back in 2007.
• A Titan G60 Inserter opens the newspaper into a V-shape and inserts vendor ads your see in the paper.
• The machine can insert 16,000 copies an hour.
• The paper then travels up the conveyor belt and is counted and stacked into bundles.
• A bundle top (carrier instruction sheet/ city location for delivery) is placed on each bundle and it is strapped.
• The bundles go outside through one of our four electric doors to our drivers, who take them to the carriers, who deliver them to your home.
ADVERTISING:
• Advertising is divided into two sections: Retail advertising and classified
• RETAIL sales consultants work with advertisers to create display ads to sell their products or services.
• The sales consultants work with their artist team to create the ads according to the advertisers’ needs. The artist can get to know what those advertisers’ preferences are to make the ad creation process more efficient.
• Sales teams and artist teams are located in “pods” throughout the department.
• CLASSIFIED or “liner ads” are placed by readers to sell cars or homes; advertise jobs, place garage sale ads and happy ads.
• The staffs answers 100’s of calls each day
• Ads are input directly into the system by the sales consultant.
• Classified provides an important community service- free ads for lost dogs, cats, bikes, etc.
FINANCIAL SERVICES:
• The Billings Gazette is the regional financial center, processing all financial transactions for Billings, Butte, Helena, Missoula, MT; Rapid City, SD; and Coos Bay, Albany and Corvallis, OR.
PHOTOGRAPHY STUDIO:
• The still photography studio provides a large, versatile area for our photographers to work.
• The studio has a white background that can be made to look like any color by using acetate gels applied to the lights.
• The curved angle where the floor meets the wall is designed to eliminate shadows.
CIRCULATION:
• The circulation department Call Center opens at 5 a.m. every day and handles over 1,500 service calls per day for Billings, Missoula, Butte, Helena, Casper, Twin Falls, Provo, Rapid City, Bismarck and Elko.
• Home Delivery Managers contract independent carriers and deal with any service issues that may arise.
• Single Copy Managers work with stores and vending machines all across the region.
PUBLISHER:
• Mike Gulledge is Publisher of the Billings Gazette and VP of Publishing for Lee Enterprises, Inc., based out of Davenport, IA.
• Lee Enterprises own 53 daily newspapers, more than 300 weekly newspapers and specialty publications, in 23 states.
• Lee’s newspapers have a circulation of 1.5 million daily and 1.9 million Sunday, reaching more than four million readers daily.
• Lee’s online sites attract more than 12 million unique visitors monthly, and Lee’s weekly publications have a distribution of more than 4.5 million households.
Each day carriers deliver more than 45,000 daily copies and that number increases to 50,000 on Sunday. To accomplish this 450 independent carriers and bundle haulers drive in excess of 12,000 miles to deliver papers in more than 120 different towns across more than 105,000 square miles (roughly the size of Iowa and Illinois combined).
• The first newspaper in Billings was published in 1882.
• The first edition of The Gazette was published May 3, 1885, on a single sheet of paper.
• The Billings Gazette moved into its current building on July 20, 1968– 42 years ago.
• The Billings Gazette facility is approximately 94,000 sq. ft. and employs more than 200 people. There are people working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• The Billings Gazette celebrated its 125th birthday in 2010
NEWSROOM:
• There are 4 sports reporters and 3 desk editors who work from 3 p.m. until midnight capturing scores so results can be immediately uploaded to GazPrep Sports blog and printed in the next edition of the newspaper.
• The Billings Gazette has 17 reporters in the building, one news reporter in Cody, WY, and 3 news reporters in Helena. The team of reporters covers different subjects such as:
o Local Crime and Courts
o Local Government
o Business
o Entertainment
o Outdoors
o Local high school, college, and pro sports
o Health
o Education
o Lifestyles
They gather information and write the story. Their stories are transmitted to their team editors who proofread it and make changes. The story goes to the copy desk where it receives another check. The copy editors are the ones who write the headlines.
The Billings Gazette print 3 editions of The Gazette every day: local, State, and Wyoming. The Wyoming edition is printed first because it has the farthest to travel.
ONLINE & VIDEO REPORTING:
The Billings Gazette is a premier multimedia news source-including print, online and now on-the-go with billingsgazette.com/mobile. The Billings Gazette produces video and web elements such as podcasts and video features.
• 30,000 to 50,000 unique visitors log onto billingsgazette.com each day for breaking news, video, and to search online real estate, automobile, and recruitment classified ads.
• Outdoors for kids has a variety of things for kids including stories, games, and videos from Jeff the Nature Guy from the Beartooth Nature Center.
PHOTOGRAPHERS:
• 6 full-time photographers shoot still for news stories, advertising or our niche publications such as Magic Magazine and for online.
• All the photos you see in The Billings Gazette are electronic images.
• The photographers and videographers are on-call 24/7 for breaking news.
VIDEO/AUDIO STUDIO:
• The Billings Gazette has a soundproof studio where podcasts, video interview segments and live performances are recorded.
UNIVERSAL DARK ROOM (UDR):
• All color photos are produced in 4 colors
• UDR is responsible for toning the photos for the paper. This is to ensure the colors are correct once they are printed on the page.
PLATE MAKING ROOM:
• Once the story has been written, proofed, photos shot and toned, the entire page is laid out; a full page replica is sent from the computer to two large processors for plate making.
• The plate is a piece of aluminum 12 one-thousandths thick and is coated with an emulsion that is sensitive to light.
• The “Thermal Plate Technology” processor uses a laser to transfer the digital image from the editor’s terminal onto the printing plate. The image is transferred by laser then baked into the light sensitive substance. The oven bakes the plate up to 400 degrees. The plate travels through the developer, which washes away any remaining substance not touched by the laser.
• The plate is transferred over a series of belts to the automatic plate bender. The bender puts folds in the plate so that they will stay on the press cylinder.
PRESS:
• The Billings Gazette uses Goss-Metro Offset Presses. The press sits on a separate foundation due to its weight, 40 tons. The press stretches nearly 3 stories.
• One ton rolls of newsprint are loaded up through the floor to the press. Each roll would measure 6.5 miles in length if unfurled. The Billings Gazette uses approximately 5600 rolls per month.
• The plates are locked onto a steel cylinder in the center. It spins, and ink and water are placed on the plate. The ink as oil and adheres to the printed images; water adheres to the clear areas. As the cylinder spins the ink is printed onto a rubber blanket and from there onto the paper. The plate and paper never touch; this is called off-set printing.
• The paper is transferred over the former board at the top where it’s folded in half, then through the folder where it is combined into a section. All the pages are printed in numerical order.
• There is a 12-inch blade which cuts the newspaper.
• The paper is folded in half again and sent out onto an overhead conveyor that takes it across to our distribution department.
• The presses run from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. The Billings Gazette prints approximately 45,000 copies daily and 50,000 copies on Sundays. Each copy of the paper is read by 2.4 people on average- this means we reach approximately 102,000 people each weekday and over 126,000 every Sunday
INK:
• The ink colors we use are cyan, magenta and yellow (which are soy-based) and black.
• Ink totes weigh 4,000 lbs. of which 3,000 lbs. is ink.
• 6 totes of each color of ink are used per year.
DISTRIBUTION:
• The Billings Gazette built a new $5.25 million state of the art Distribution center back in 2007.
• A Titan G60 Inserter opens the newspaper into a V-shape and inserts vendor ads your see in the paper.
• The machine can insert 16,000 copies an hour.
• The paper then travels up the conveyor belt and is counted and stacked into bundles.
• A bundle top (carrier instruction sheet/ city location for delivery) is placed on each bundle and it is strapped.
• The bundles go outside through one of our four electric doors to our drivers, who take them to the carriers, who deliver them to your home.
ADVERTISING:
• Advertising is divided into two sections: Retail advertising and classified
• RETAIL sales consultants work with advertisers to create display ads to sell their products or services.
• The sales consultants work with their artist team to create the ads according to the advertisers’ needs. The artist can get to know what those advertisers’ preferences are to make the ad creation process more efficient.
• Sales teams and artist teams are located in “pods” throughout the department.
• CLASSIFIED or “liner ads” are placed by readers to sell cars or homes; advertise jobs, place garage sale ads and happy ads.
• The staffs answers 100’s of calls each day
• Ads are input directly into the system by the sales consultant.
• Classified provides an important community service- free ads for lost dogs, cats, bikes, etc.
FINANCIAL SERVICES:
• The Billings Gazette is the regional financial center, processing all financial transactions for Billings, Butte, Helena, Missoula, MT; Rapid City, SD; and Coos Bay, Albany and Corvallis, OR.
PHOTOGRAPHY STUDIO:
• The still photography studio provides a large, versatile area for our photographers to work.
• The studio has a white background that can be made to look like any color by using acetate gels applied to the lights.
• The curved angle where the floor meets the wall is designed to eliminate shadows.
CIRCULATION:
• The circulation department Call Center opens at 5 a.m. every day and handles over 1,500 service calls per day for Billings, Missoula, Butte, Helena, Casper, Twin Falls, Provo, Rapid City, Bismarck and Elko.
• Home Delivery Managers contract independent carriers and deal with any service issues that may arise.
• Single Copy Managers work with stores and vending machines all across the region.
PUBLISHER:
• Mike Gulledge is Publisher of the Billings Gazette and VP of Publishing for Lee Enterprises, Inc., based out of Davenport, IA.
• Lee Enterprises own 53 daily newspapers, more than 300 weekly newspapers and specialty publications, in 23 states.
• Lee’s newspapers have a circulation of 1.5 million daily and 1.9 million Sunday, reaching more than four million readers daily.
• Lee’s online sites attract more than 12 million unique visitors monthly, and Lee’s weekly publications have a distribution of more than 4.5 million households.
Notable contributors
- Rocky Dailey, (online reporter)
- John LetaskyJohn LetaskyJohn Letasky is an American sportswriter and columnist. Letasky is currently the Club Boxing, MMA and prep wrestling beat writer for the Billings Gazette. He also covers various other sports for the Gazette, including state prep football. In the summer Letasky has written the Gazette fishing...
(sportswriter/columnist/blogger) - Ryan MinchRyan MinchRyan Matthew Minch is an American sportswriter and blogger. Minch covers multiple sports for the Billings Gazette, including the Billings Outlaws of the IFL, the Billings Bulls of the NorPac and prep sports writeups.Minch also covers a variety of topics around the IFL and indoor/arena football in...
(sportswriter/blogger) - Tom StoutTom StoutTom Stout was a U.S. Representative from Montana.Born in New London, Missouri, Stout attended the common schools, Warrenburg State Normal School, and the University of Missouri.He taught school.He studied law....
, (former editorial writer) - Becky Shay, (former reporter)