Sports Editor, Pocatello Idaho

Well, they did bring some good people on. Iorizzo was an excellent youngster from Syracuse and was a good find for the ISJ (even if I was a little miffed we lost a chance of hiring him at my previous stop. )

If the pay is what Minatauro describes, I understand completely why he chose to go north. We couldn't even get in that ballpark.

 

i tried lester, but i was too busy wiping tears from my eyes to be able to type.

the good news is i have a new premise to write my first chick flick script.

 

You are in a one-paper town that is one of the armpits of America, who is this that you are trying to bury?

 

I would suspect that Pokey would be trying to bury Idaho Falls. They're what, 75 miles apart? It does seem like the Pokey guys have a major chip on their shoulder while the IF guys seem to have a decent sense of humor. As an Idaho resident, I can vouch for the fact that the ability to laugh at oneself is vital to survival. Then again, I'm a confirmed lifer, so maybe the chip on the shoulder is important for those trying to get beyond the Gem State's borders. Me, I'm doomed to a lifetime of humoring people who think the WAC is "big-time football."

 

Don't you know that it's not about providing complete coverage for the readers by sharing with other newspapers, but winning awards that the readers don't care about?

 

HOW have you not applied for this job? Doug Oliver can be your first reference.

 

Lester -- We definitely try to maintain our sense of humor down here.. this is _almost_ as far from the big time as you can get.. maybe Wyoming is farther. ;-) Then again, maybe not.

I've never really considered the Idaho State Journal to be our competition. They are 50 miles away, but the only town we both sell papers in is Blackfoot. Sure, we both cover Idaho State, but readership studies show that only about 15% of our readers care enough about ISU to warrant more than home-game coverage. We have more interest in BYU, to be honest.

I've never really cared about awards. Sure, we've won our share here, but my paper has also judged a bunch of awards contests. I know how these things are decided, so I really don't put a lot of stock in it as far as determining whether I'm doing my job or not.  Kinda cliche, I guess, but if I won awards by the truckload but every coach and athletic director in my coverage area hated the newspaper and parents were canceling their subscriptions left and right, I wouldn't have a job. Maybe it's not like that everywhere.

Finally, as far as "help" is concerned, to my knowledge the only thing we've ever asked the Journal to help us on -- really, the only thing we've ever asked any other newspaper for help on -- is information on their teams come state tournament time, so we can release a comprehensive package with info on teams from the entire state that every newspaper can print. And, once again, their writers have always been as helpful as they can be in providing that information.

At any rate, it could be worse, Lester. You could live in an area where the Big Sky is considered big time.

 

You mean the Big Sky isn't big time? ???

 

Montana is. Everybody else.. not so much.

 

You're a man right after sc's heart, I see.

 

It's tough being a SEC guy living out here.

I regard southern Idaho as Hawaii: our papers are little islands unto themselves with a common theme -- we're in Idaho. Boise is the big island, and Nampa, TF, IF and Poky are the other ones. I don't see how anyone thinks competition exists between any of them (maybe the Statesman and the Nampa paper). That being said, I sincerely get along with everyone because there's no reason not to.

And yes, to confirm what my loud-mouthed friend Superman said, our open position is in the toilet.

 

Good point. Perhaps he could tell me about some of the fine dining establishments in Poky, like say, Applebees.