Well done, Maury Povich

by Mouser The King Cat

Maury Povich, he of the “Who’s the daddy?” brand of talk show, long ago lost credibility as a journalist. That said, he is from good stock. His father was sports editor at The Washington Post for four decades. Back in the day Maury excelled in the TV business as a reporter and anchorman, along the line marrying another star, Connie Chung.

Those facing the career decisions he faced likely would have done exactly the same things he did. But not everyone starts a weekly newspaper in an obscure county in Montana. From the Columbia Journalism Review:

 “Creating a new outlet for traditional local journalism was a way to honor his father’s legacy, Povich said. He chose Kalispell, which was already served by a local daily, as the base for his new enterprise because he and Chung had bought a home in the area in 1998. They hired Kellyn Brown, then a 28-year-old city editor at The Bozeman Daily Chronicle, to launch the paper. The first edition of the [Flathead] Beacon, totaling 24 pages, was published in May 2007.”

From the celebrity owners on down, this weekly tabloid is anything but typical. It averages 64 pages per issue, prints 25,000 copies and draws about 100,000 unique visitors a month to its website. It has all the local news you’d expect plus stories like a Super Bowl week visit with Flathead County native Brock Osweiler, an NFL quarterback. (Brock didn’t get into the big game as some guy named Manning hogged the glory.)

Maury, at 77, gets the final word: 

I look at the Beacon like a father who’s very proud of a child. I’m here to help you, but as you get older you’re going to have to figure out some things on your own.