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Western Montana InBusiness May 2009 – Clark Fork’s Cash Flow – Missoula Builds a ‘River Economy’ and Saves Its Historic Downtown

InBusiness launches new features for changing times

At Western Montana InBusiness, we’re growing and changing to meet the needs and interests of our communities and readers. You’ll find the first of those changes in this edition.

We’re broadening each month’s topics a bit to cover more ground. So you’ll still find a lead story and attendant sidebars – in May, we look at the growing "river economy" in downtown Missoula. But you’ll also find a number of other major business stories, photos and graphics – this month, about the travel and recreation industry.

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"Of course, now I am too old to be much of a fisherman, and some friends think I shouldn’t. Like many fly fishermen in western Montana where the summer days are almost Arctic in length, I often do not start fishing until the cool of the evening. Then in the Arctic half-light of the canyon, all existence fades to a being with my soul and memories and the sounds of the Big Blackfoot River and a four-count rhythm and the hope that fish will rise.

Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.

I am haunted by waters."
— Norman Maclean (A River Runs Through It and Other Stories)

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By SHERRY DEVLIN

In conjunction with the University of Montana School of Business Administration, we’re adding a monthly Q&A with a notable UM business grad offering their insights and advice. First up is Stefanie Henderson, a 2004 UM grad, former Grizzly soccer player, now Americas region product manager for women’s training, tennis and kids’ footwear for Nike.

Along the way, we’ll also add profiles of notable businesses: those new to town, the small players reaping big rewards, the entrepreneurs. This month, Chelsi Moy visits Taco Sano, Missoula’s newest taco/burrito/quesadilla joint – with a twist.

In response to the challenges posed by the nation’s economic downturn, we’ve launched a new monthly "recession buster" feature – a consumer-friendly, business-friendly guide to saving money. Keila Szpaller took on that role for this edition, and has a slew of suggestions for cutting your automotive repair and gasoline costs.

Graphics editor Ken Barnedt is bringing you more pages of charts, graphs and statistics that should help explain the economy’s ups and downs, our featured topics of the month and our community’s major industries. This month, he looked at the tourism industry’s markers. Next month, we’ll expand that statistical fare.

In addition, we’ve asked technology writer Mark Ratledge to provide a monthly feature designed to help western Montana businesses negotiate the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities afforded by the Web. And we’ve encouraged a host of business leaders to offer their thoughts in a rotating series of columns from the Missoula Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Association, Visitors and Convention Bureau, Sustainable Business Council and Montana Community Development Corp.

Coming in June will be a new page of photos submitted by our InBusiness readers: shots from your business celebrations, networking functions and special events. We’re looking for the latest events – photos from this month’s business events in western Montana. Send us one or two photos per event, by e-mail to [email protected]. Please send it as a jpeg file. Questions? Call photography editor Kurt Wilson at (406) 523-5270.

As always, I’m very interested in hearing your suggestions. What do you like and dislike about Western Montana InBusiness? What do you want to see more or less of in each edition? What stories should we be chasing? What topics would you like us to explore? Drop me a note by e-mail at [email protected] or by mail at Sherry Devlin, Missoulian, P.O. Box 8029, Missoula, MT 59807.

These are challenging times for our economy and communities here in western Montana, and we want InBusiness to be a publication that helps our readers make sense of all that’s happening – and make it through to the other side.

Sherry Devlin is editor of Western Montana InBusiness and the Missoulian. Reach her at (406) 523-5250 or by e-mail at [email protected].

Full Newsletter: http://www.mtinbusiness.com/inbiz-0905/

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