Roundup Record Tribune & Winnett Times -

The forces of evil are still at work within Musselshell County Government. Last Thursday evening, as I happened to check the county's website for updated county commission minutes and the agenda for the Friday regular commission meeting, there was a line item which stated ' Discuss and vote on using the Roundup Herald as a "Paper of Record."' As a publisher, my eyebrows upturned with that curious sentence. Those who don't realize the phrase 'paper of record' means the newspaper that will publish all legal and public notices in that paper! This designation is essential for the Roundup Record Tribune & Winnett Times. Firstly from a historical perspective, this newspaper has been the 'paper of record' since 1909, and secondly, it is an essential source of revenue for the newspaper.

I don't have anything against the Roundup Herald, it is a competitor to the Tribune, but we have different formats and strengths. But after acquiring a copy of the Herald's 'Sworn Statement of Circulation,' which was provided to the county in late January. The Herald distributes on average 150 copies of its paper weekly within the county. The Roundup Record-Tribune has a county-wide rate of 780 copies per week distribution. The Roundup Record-Tribune distributes on average 380 copies outside the county, whereas the Herald sends out 20 copies outside the county's borders. The Herald reaches far fewer residents than the Roundup Record-Tribune.

Lura and I attended the 3:00 PM open session of the county commission meeting to inquire why the Record-Tribune had not been notified of this potential move by the county and why the vote would be taken without any community input or notification? When we entered the meeting room Commissioner Goffena, Commissioner Pancratz, and Kenny Davis, who was representing the Roundup Hearld, were discussing the issue. The commissioners decided to run legal notices and public notices in both papers for the next couple of months, then choose at that time!

I left the meeting wondering that if the county were looking for reasons to print legal and public notices more economically, then printing in both papers would not accomplish their stated goal.

I made some inquiries locally and discovered from unnamed individuals within the local Republican central committee that this idea of harming the Roundup Record-Tribune & Winnett Times' financial standing was hatched by non-other than Maryrose Beasley, the chairman of the Republican central committee. By withdrawing the designation 'paper of record' this would damage this 114-year-old newspaper's financial standing. Beasley openly discussed the idea at a central committee meeting. And Beasley would use her ace-in-the-hole commissioner, Pancratz, to float the scheme to the other commissioners.

This newspaper has exposed some of the underhanded shenanigans that individuals have perpetrated against good governance within Musselshell County. This exposure occurred over the past summer and fall of 2020.

So you have to ask yourselves is the county government trying to save money or put a newspaper that has been an essential fixture within the community since 1908 out of business?

Dave Ponte

Publisher