Assistant Sports Editor, Palmdale, CA

As of last fall, you could buy a brand-new, decent-sized home in the AV for $140K. It's quite similar to where I live, in the San Joaquin Valley. And prices have dropped even more since then. And don't, by all means, don't buy one for $600K. That's part of what got us into this mess in the first place, at least in California.

 

Mark, I was comparing it to the greater LA area, where the median home price is around 570k.

You can get a new home for 140-150k these days, 180k if you buy one of the KB Homes these assholes are putting up behind me for no good reason other than they have a pulse, which means our intrepid city council will issue them a building permit.

 

The only other one I'm aware of is special sections editor.

http://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?JobID=1043420

 

Want this one. Want this one. Want this one.

 

Two stories about BG's prolific and tireless nature:

During the spring of '96, Brian covered the NHL AND NBA finals simultaneously. Working desk, I'd get calls from him from various airports/hotels, checking to see if his stories (always plural) were in.

While on this sojurn, he also managed to sneak in various columns about the Lancaster JetHawks, the Class A team that moved from Riverside and was playing its debut season in Lancaster.

Story II: Brian covered two bowl games. On the same day. In different parts of Florida.

There are more where this came from, many more. But this gives you an idea how tireless Brian is, even if as time went on, he had to do some of these on his own dime.

 

Don't confuse maniacal quantity with quality regarding Brian Golden or forget the ridiculous things in his columns that aren't fit for print and have to be edited out.

 

such as?

 

I was wondering if/when a Brian Golden blast was coming. I have known him for a long time, but haven't seen or read him recently.
Being prolific doesn't mean being good. And to compare him to Whicker in any way, shape or form is ridiculous.
He knew organizational people in every team and, seemingly, everyone in the newspaper game.
I wondered why he couldn't parlay that into a better job.
No offense to those up there, but Antelope Valley/Newhall/Santa Clarita/Lancaster/Palmdale aren't exactly garden spots in SoCal and the papers there have little or no impact the mainstream sports teams.
Golden got a downtown radio gig many years ago and he turned from columnist to shill. He showed up at games with a tape recorder and a bunch of T-shirts to give to the athletes. He charged around locker rooms getting in everybody's way and generally being a pest. His sports talk show sucked, he threw in his political views and honked Penn State ad nauseam.

 

Not confusing that in the least. And I guarantee you, I've spent more desktime editing BG columns than anyone. Yes, meatball surgery was required on more than a few. I know, because I performed more than my share -- on and off deadline.

Yes, he's provincial. VERY provincial. Too provincial for his own good at times. But when he shelves that, he knows his stuff, works his ass off, does his homework and produces decent copy on all sports: preps to pros.

The AV is a market that does need someone writing on the LA teams because it's a bedroom community of commuters. For perspective, 90 percent of the people who live up here didn't live here in 1985.

And FWIW, every reader survey done in the last 15 years came back with the result that the paper spends too much time/space/emphasis on high schools and not enough on the Dodgers/Lakers, etc. Of course, it should spend time/space/emphasis on high schools, but over the last 20-plus years, the paper has shown it can do both.

And SoCal, your barely warranted blast at my hometown not withstanding, nowhere in my posts will you or did you see me compare BG to Whicker, who I've been on record on this board saying is one of the most underrated columnists in the country.

 

I'm guessing one reason Golden didn't move on is that a larger paper wouldn't have let him travel the country on his own dime covering anything he chose to.
Never could figure why the AVP would need a reporter at the Stanley Cup Finals in Pittsburgh.

 

It was Editude's post, Bird. I read that a week ago and probably only remembered Golden and Whicker being referred to in the same sentence without the context.
And I concur with MTM's post -- news value to YOUR readers should outweigh what the columnist WANTS to cover.

 

And I wasn't comparing Golden's writing to Whicker's in the slightest. Uh, not close. I was noting the commitment to cover local and nonlocal events with enthusiasm. And that's always going to be a challenge in provincial/satellite areas.