Houston native eager to amp up the Big Sky

The Missoula Independent has hired alt-weekly veteran Brad Tyer as its new Editor. Tyer, a refugee from Houston, Texas, takes over from Interim Editor David Madison, who will become the paper’s Flathead Bureau Chief in Kalispell, Mont.

Tyer comes to Missoula after an his own interim stop as Editor at the Texas Observer. Prior to that, he earned his spurs as a staff reporter at the Houston Press, a producer at Microsoft’s Houston Sidewalk, and calendar guy at Willamette Week. His work has earned numerous awards, including the 1995 Katie Award for arts writing from the Dallas Press Club.

“We had a lot of interesting applicants, including some veteran daily editors, some well-seasoned pros, but Brad had the best sensibility for this paper,” said Independent Publisher Matt Gibson.

“Brad has a strong news background, but I was most impressed by his literary chops. I want the Independent to read like James Joyce amplified through a stack of Marshalls, and I think Brad can relate. He’s already made a noticeable difference in the quality of both the reporting and the writing in the short time he’s been here.”

Madison, the former Editor of AAN papers in Boise, Park City, and Raleigh-Durham, is charged with opening up a new Independent bureau in the Flathead Valley, on the western flank of Glacier National Park.

“Steinbeck wrote that Montana seems to be ‘what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans,’” Tyer said. “I have no idea what Steinbeck would sound like though a Marshall stack, but we’re looking forward to making some noise anyhow.”

The Missoula Independent is Montana’s largest weekly newspaper, with a circulation of 21,000. It boasts a four-week cumulative reach of 63% of Missoula adults, and has earned two first place editorial awards from AAN.