Burl Bowler started working at the family newspaper when he was 6 years old. He wasn’t allowed to write yet, but his family needed him to help sweep floors and shovel coal into the furnace to heat the building.
“Every once in a while, I still wake up thinking about, ‘Did I fill the coal furnace or not?’” Burl said during a Wednesday interview.
Now 71, Burl is still working at the Daniels County Leader. But, after a century of family operations, the northeast Montana paper is planning to close up shop next month after no one stepped in to buy it. The weekly will publish its last issue July 30.
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The paper has four employees, including Burl and his wife, Roz Bowler. Each of the four serves in a variety of roles, according to Burl, who affectionately described the jobs as “a variety of drudgery.”
The newspaper’s print circulation is about 900. About 500 of those are in Daniels County, home to about 1,600 people, which mainly produces wheat and legumes. Only about 100 people are signed up for the Leader’s digital-only edition.
Burl’s grandfather, Burley Bowler, became involved in the newspaper about a century ago, according to an April article in the Leader about the history of the newspaper. Before he bought the paper, Burley spent the first part of his career as a journeyman watchmaker, which lent him a firm understanding of printing press mechanics. Burl wrote that he had “a colorful style of writing and was quite opinionated.”
The Leader has never missed an issue under the Bowler family’s ownership, despite three major fires. The first blaze occurred in 1926, when a communist group — sympathizers of Plentywood’s newspaper amid its feud with the Leader — set fire to the Leader’s building. During Burl’s father, Larry Bowler’s tenure, lightning started another fire. In 2006, when a fire started in a coal furnace, Burl salvaged the printing press from the wreckage and rebuilt it.
Burl was allowed to handle his first solo run on the printing press when he was in junior high.
“My dad wasn’t able to run it that day and they had to come get me out of school,” Burl said.
The work didn’t let up from there, and his many roles didn’t give him much time off. The Bowlers have taken four one-week vacations in almost 52 years of marriage, Burl said.
Burl explained his family’s decision to look for a buyer in an article the Leader published in April, which reported that “Roz and I have painted ourselves into a corner and done a poor job of figuring a way out.”
“I feel really obligated to the community or otherwise I would have quit a long time ago,” Burl said.
The Bowlers have 10 grandchildren. Burl said some of his family live nearby, but he emphasized that he does not bemoan their disinterest in taking the reins.
The couple has spent years looking for the right buyer, he said.
“I’m not going to just turn my family’s legacy over to somebody at the last minute,” Burl said.
Burl said his publication faced growing competition from Facebook for readers and advertisers. He anticipates the social media platform will become the community’s primary news source, a fact that rankles Burl.
“A friend of mine told me, ‘We read it on Facebook, and we find out if it’s true in the Leader,’” Burl said.
In the end, the pair couldn’t find a buyer. They announced the paper’s July closure in the most recent issue. Burl said, despite the demands of the work, he isn’t looking forward to the last day.
“It’s heartbreaking for me,” Burl said.
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