2,000 and counting…

GRANITE COUNTY – Since July of 2018 the Flint Creek Courier has been providing coverage of Granite County, primarily around sports.

But after t all that time, we’ve hit a major milestone.

2,000 stories.

There have been government scandals, elections, and various projects that we have helped promote and inform the citizens of Granite County about. And while we’d like to cover more of those things, sports are the one constant that has allowed us to draw in some 8,000 viewers per month.

And we’ve expanded to help the Class C Western Division by digitizing their postseason media guides for volleyball and basketball, drawing more than 100,000 viewers over those few weeks of postseason play with PrepSportsMT.com.

But stories are just what you see on the website. The Flint Creek Courier has created over 900 Facebook Live reports covering everything from breaking news, weather, and traffic to in-game reports, election results, and promoting local businesses.

As some of you may know, I (Tim Allen) started by taking photographs for the Philipsburg Mail when I got here in 2015. That lasted until 2017 when a new online news agency (QSPNLive.com) started up and invited me to create content for it. I wrote over 800 pieces for them and created hundreds of videos which they deleted most of after going defunct in 2019.

When you add them all together, past and present, I’ve had the please of bringing you 3,834 stories & videos – including the story you’re reading right now.

The reason the Flint Creek Courier was able to launch in 2018 was due to the contributions of Mark Flaherty and Craig Sorensen. These two men stepped up and provided some funding and guidance as the Courier launched, and I am forever in their debt.

And there’s two more people that need crediting here – Brooks Phillips and Pete DeRosier. Brooks was the one that initially encouraged me to run more box scores (especially for volleyball) that allowed more kids to get more credit, even if it was a minor contribution in a game.

When I was getting a little discouraged with a lack of advertisers early on, it was Pete that encouraged me to stick with it. He assured me people liked what I was doing and that those box scores were making a difference.

One last person is Dawn Hoffman, who was tremendously encouraging in my early days of broadcasting volleyball and basketball over the NFHS Network. Many thanks to Dawn for her kind words and voluminous statistics.

Well, that’s about it. Basketball season is in full swing, and we are well on our way to 4,000 collective pieces!

See ya at the games!