Victoria Advocate...

Does anybody have any info on this shop?

I know it's in South TX, with a circ of 36K and they cover 44 high schools...

but anything beyond that, I could use some help-- regarding staff, what they primarily cover, etc.

Is it a definite upgrade over other TX shops like Laredo Morning Times, Denton Record-Chron, Waco Trib-Herald, and others?

 

Worked there in the mid-90s and the paper was a fairly pleasant place. Most of the people were very nice and easy to work for, and the pay, at the time, wasn't bad for a paper its size in the middle of nowhere.

I was a page designer and copy editor on the news side when I was there and helped out a lot with Friday Night Football. The former sports editor, Rich Croome, is a heck of a great guy but is now at the Bryan-College Station Eagle. His assistant took over for him and I believe is still there as SE. I found him to be a perfectly friendly, professional guy, but there was a prickly side to his personality, too.

The paper itself isn't too bad, but be aware that Victoria is literally in the middle of nowhere. It's about two hours to Corpus Christi and San Antonio, but the drive seems to last forever. For a town of about 60,000, there was NOTHING to do (unless hanging out at Wal-Mart is your idea of fun).

Like I said, that was some time ago, and I'm sure the town has probably improved since then. When I was there, I liked my job but couldn't wait to get out of Victoria.

As far as an upgrade from some of the papers you mentioned, I can't say for sure, but certainly it's a better place to cover sports than the Laredo paper. Denton's a much better location, but then you have that whole Belo thing to worry about. Don't know anything about Waco.

 

New editor was the guy who lost out on the Poynter job with his admission he didn't care about repackaging AP copy in Colorado. Attempts to make downtown cuter, and there are plenty of chain restaurants around the loop. Decent prep sports but not much else (it's too far from Austin, Houston or San Antonio to do regional coverage). Not too far from Rockport and Port A, which are interesting beach towns. Did I mention it's wicked hot there much of the time?

 

Mike Freeman is a great guy.

Can't say much for the town. It's often referred to as the "armpit of Texas."

Corpus is about an hour away. Houston, two hours.

 

Appreciate all the advice. It helps a bunch.

I figured all there was were preps pretty much. At least in Laredo and in other places like El Paso and Amarillo, you have some semi-pro teams to cover as well, just for variety.

 

From the little I've seen of them, they seem to do a pretty good job on the preps. I know next to nothing about the working conditions there and, although I was born in Victoria, I never lived there -- so I can't speak to what the town is like. Hot and humid, I'd guess.