Welcome to Rural News Wire

I've sat in the editor's chair of two rural newsrooms. I know what it's like to be the only person covering a county commission meeting, the only one making sure the sheriff's blotter gets published, the only voice making sure a town of 3,000 people knows what's happening in their own backyard.

As Managing Editor of the Big Horn County News in Hardin, Montana and the Big Timber Pioneer in Big Timber, Montana, I got firsthand experience with local journalism and small communities. I also saw how fragile the journalism industry was. Local papers are shrinking.

I've lived a rural life in a remote cabin outside Chama, New Mexico in the Sangre de Cristos. I've lived in small towns across Montana, Missouri, and the Southwest. Rural News Wire exists because as local newspapers die, the coverage gap gets wider.

Starting with Lake of the Ozarks.

Camden County, Osage Beach, Camdenton, and the surrounding communities are the starting point. We'll have daily coverage of local government, law enforcement, schools, severe weather, business, and community news delivered in one digest so you don't have to hunt for it.

Then, we grow.

Big Horn County, Montana. Chama and northern New Mexico. Big Timber and Sweet Grass County. Rural communities I know personally, places I've lived and worked, towns that deserve better coverage than they're getting. Rural News Wire is built to scale across every underserved community in America, one region at a time.

What you get:

Subscribe for free and get a daily local news digest in your inbox. No paywalls on local news that matters. Down the road, paid subscribers will get expanded coverage, in-depth reporting, and commentary from someone who's actually been in the trenches of rural journalism.

This is a former rural newspaper editor who knows these towns because he lived in them, building something that couldn't have existed years ago.

Welcome to Rural News Wire. Subscribe and stay informed.

— Ty McDuffey, Founder & Editor