Following Lee Enterprises’ shutdown of the Missoula Independent, the Indy’s former arts and entertainment writer and editor teamed up to continue the publication’s coverage on a new platform.

Sarah Aswell, who contributed to the Indy for six years, launched The Missoula Tempo through Medium.com only days after the shutdown. She and her volunteer staff work to offer Missoulians articles on the arts in their community in the wake of the Indy’s closure.

“The Indy closed on a Tuesday. I cried for two days and felt really overwhelmed and sad, but I’m the kind of person who gets over something by doing something. On Thursday, I published my first article,” she said.

Working her entire career as a freelance writer, Aswell’s work has appeared in the New Yorker, National Lampoon and on Montana Public Radio. The Tempo pays her nothing but the satisfaction of continuing her passion for writing and informing the community.

According to Erika Fredrickson, Missoula native and former arts editor at the Indy for 10 years, the website started out of a need to showcase articles written by Indy writers that would have otherwise gone unpublished. She supported Aswell’s initiative to create a website that takes on the same role as the shuttered paper’s arts section. She currently works as the site’s editor.

So far, The Missoula Tempo has articles on plays, stand-up comedians and dancers that have come to Missoula for the past few weeks. With no way to advertise outside of word of mouth, the public has the Tempo’s fate in its hands. In the weeks since its creation, Fredrickson says the site has gotten positive feedback from both the community and local journalists who want to contribute.

“We didn’t realize people would respond to it the way they did,” said Frederickson.

Along with these contributions, The Tempo has also received backing from a local tech company. Submittable, based out of Missoula, works with online publishers to streamline the process of getting their content online. The company has offered its services to Aswell for free.

Aswell has been contacted by 20 writers, 15 photographers and just as many editors interested in doing work for the Tempo. Although she appreciates the enthusiastic response, without any way to pay the staff, she asks that they only write one article a month.

“We want as many people to volunteer as possible, but we want to make sure the writing is solid. We’re trying to find that balance,” Fredrickson said. “We really hate that we can’t pay our writers, but I think this is a moment where it’s about making a statement.”

In creating the website as a kind of lifeline for coverage of events, such as the upcoming Montana Film Festival, the two former Indy contributors acknowledge the evolving media landscape. As freelancers, they are working to evolve with it.

So, Aswell and Fredrickson still write and edit, still engage, while confronting the very real possibility that the Tempo will be too temporary.