The Anaconda Leader, which had published twice a week for more than half a century in the small southwest Montana city of Anaconda, printed its last edition Friday and announced its closure Monday. Editor James Rosien and owner Van Neitz confirmed the shutdown, citing conditions that have eroded local news operations across the country.

The Leader's closure leaves Anaconda — a city of roughly 9,000 people and the seat of Deer Lodge County — without a dedicated local newspaper. Neitz cited the same pressures that have shuttered hundreds of local papers nationally over the past decade: declining print advertising revenue, competition from social media, and the difficulty of sustaining a newsroom on a small-town subscriber base.

For Montanans who follow the state's media landscape, the closure is part of a pattern that has accelerated in recent years. Several smaller Montana communities have lost their local papers or seen them reduce publication frequency significantly. Anaconda, which has a distinct civic identity rooted in its history as a copper smelting town, loses not just a news source but a publication that had covered local government, schools, and community life since the early 1970s.

No announcement was made about whether any digital successor publication is planned for the Anaconda area. The Leader's website remained up as of Monday, carrying the closure announcement.