Mike Bostwick has long looked for a way to make a living in Montana so he could return to his Missoula roots.
After earning a journalism degree from the University of Montana in 1988, the former Big Sky High School student body president moved to California where he honed his skills by producing myriad free publications in Sacramento. Now, he's back in Missoula publishing a new magazine, Inside the Garden City.
"It was good experience as far as learning a lot of things," Bostwick, 39, said of working in California. "I had on more of a publisher's hat than a journalist's."
The Sacramento area served as a regional production center for real estate buyer's guides, producing upward of 125 magazines.
"That introduced me to the world of niche publishing, the free-circulation type publishing," he said. "It also introduced me to the pace of wearing a lot of different hats," including sales, management, circulation and graphic design.
From there he started his own company, which produced publications for a variety of venues.
"As publishers, we tried to complement each other because we had common challenges in terms of distribution into major markets," said Bostwick. "We also had certain common budget constraints and we would share resources with designers, artists, graphic designers - we sort of worked collectively to do that."
That experience, he said, gave him the experience and skills to return home to Missoula, where in February he launched Inside the Garden City.
"It has always been the plan to come back. It's just that it took a little longer to facilitate," he said. "It was just waiting for the right opportunity to pull those roots and plant up here."
A coffee-table sized, stapled and bound publication, Inside the Garden City debuted with 20 pages and 18,000 copies, but plans call for the April issue to run 32 pages.
"I think the feedback and response of readers and advertising will go a long way in helping shape the development," Bostwick said. "That's kind of always been our approach. You plant a seed and try to nurture that seed, get it out there and let the community help the direction that you go."
He also writes a couple of articles in the publication, which is distributed at 125 locations, a few downtown racks and some door-to-door.
"I'm not looking to 'harse anyone's groove,' rather entertain, inform and provoke thought," he wrote in his second edition.
"It's more of a promotional venue whether I'm promoting the concept of business, a business or the lifestyle of the town" he said in an interview. "It's a little more of an advocacy slant to it. It does give you a forum."
There's a page devoted to upcoming events, a few features on local businesses, several redecorating tip stories, a movie review, a comics page and columns by people like Bill O'Reilly and Zig Ziglar.
"I'm trying to sort of create a hybrid of some of the things and the magazines that I saw working in that (Sacramento) area," said Bostwick. "Instead of going really deep into any subject, it covers maybe a little more breadth of subjects."
His business plan calls for gradual incremental growth, but he'd gladly embrace quick widespread acceptance.
"To that end, we'll wait and see," said Bostwick. "I don't represent myself as an alternative newspaper. If we try to present ourselves as something other than entertainment, I think we may be somewhat disingenuous and I'm comfortable with that. I'd like to represent myself as an entertaining and somewhat informing and maybe provocative publication to read."
Reporter Mick Holien can be reached at 523-5262 or at mholien@missoulian.com.
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