Sports reporter, Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record

It's a tabloid-sized paper. Driving through northeastern PA/Middletown/northern Jersey while going from school to home, I always liked what I saw. It's also been a while since I've seen it.

 

I can't imagine it's in the $20Ks. I really can't.

And wicked, it's tabloid paper, but it's a deep tab. Three inches deeper than the Post or Daily News, if I recall.

 

I heard and saw good things in the past, but didn't their executive editor die a year or so ago? I met him once, but I'm blanking on his name. The guy was pretty impressive when I met him and had a strong interest and background in sports.

 

Mike Levine. Yes, an impressive man.

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=NEWS27

 

Thank you, Frank.

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070116/SPORTS/701160322/-1/NEWS27

Sorry for the threadjack, but this part from the sports guys struck me. That is exactly the impression I got from the time I met the guy.

At one point a few years back, I was looking at jobs outside of sports and put in for an opening they had in features. Mike brought me in. The first words out of his mouth were, "So...sports." He had sized me up from my cover letter and my clips and had no intention of hiring me for a non-sports opening. He just saw something he liked in my work and decided to bring me in for an informal interview in case anything opened in sports.

For about a minute I was annoyed. By the end of our discussion, I was happy I had gone. He had me as charged up about sports writing as I had been in quite a while and I was feeling driven to, as he put it, "work on my craft." I had gotten so wrapped up in the day-to-day, that I was forgetting to do that.

Excuse me while I go hang my head in shame for not remembering his name. Long week.

 

He was the soul of that paper (cliche, I know, but in this case true). Fortunately, a lot of the people who learned from him are still there.

 

You are right, STLIrish, he did teach those of us who remain an awful lot. And his passion for sports was unmatched.

"Where's the heat?" was his famous line whenever he talked out a story.

 

Any news on this gig?

 

They did send someone to Arizona for the Super Bowl so that got to mean something about the paper.

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080201/SPORTS08/802010364/-1/SPORTS

Edit: Look at this website the paper created just for the Super Bowl located at http://www.newyorkversusnewengland.com/

They also have a very impressive High School Sports website Varsity 845
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=SPORTS31

 

I'd suspect that was a collaboration with their Ottaway cousins in New Bedford, Cape Cod and Portsmouth, but, still, nicely done.
And while they don't tend to travel much with the NYC pro teams, they do cover them pretty well (particularly baseball and NFL), and travel for the very big stuff. They've sent their columnists to spring training in recent years.

 

Cape Cod AND New Bedford sent people to Scottsdale, and GateHouse can't send one for its eight dailies? Yikes.

And STL is right, the site is a collaboration of Ottaway's Northeast papers. Nicely done, especially on a relatively quick turnaround (unless they had this up and running during baseball season, which I don't recall).