carlsbad current-argus

was contacted about a nonsports position with the carlsbad current-argus. anyone have any thoughts on this paper and carlsbad in general?

 

They're about to get a new editor (Martha Mauritson, currently managing editor at the Las Cruces Sun-News) in February. You'd love working for her. She's an editor who comes from the newsroom, which is great. She's newsroom friendly. But Media News is absolutely killing the Texas-New Mexico Newspaper Partnership that Carlsbad is a part of.

The El Paso Times is losing so much money, but is by far the biggest paper in the partnership. No resources ... NO RESOURCES ... are given to the smaller papers in New Mexico while it seems those that run the TNM have only one priority and that is saving the EP Times. Carlsbad is by no means a priority for the bean counters in the organization and it shows.

 

Also, Carlsbad sucks serious ass as a town. Literally middle of nowhere, nothing to do in the desert type place.

 

Agreed that Carlsbad is the middle of nowhere. Realize that El Paso is a hard-core, no-cell-service, flat-nothingness three hour drive away. It's also your closest major airport.

The town is very Mayberry, skewed to the senior citizens, but a decent place to raise kids. There is the Pecos River, which isn't much, but the lakeside area is nice.

Hot as hell in the summer, can get cold as hell in the winter, but 325 days of sunshine.

 

Carlsbad may be the most insular town I've ever dealt with. If you didn't grow up there, people are automatically suspicious of why you would want to be there.

Coming in from Texas may be the second-biggest sin one can commit. The biggest would be to come in from Artesia, of wich Carlsbad residents are insanely jealous.

 

Not to sound like Mizzou, but I've had this happen -- and all of those places were in the Deep South.

I hate, hate, hate that attitude.

 

Oh, one other thing: Google "Waste Isolation Pilot Plant"...

 

it's like that in my burg, which ain't in the south

 

But can a guy find some good food there? That's the real question.

 

A lot has changed since I was in that area. A Roswell restaurateur opened up an Italian place a year or two ago. If it's anything like his home base, it will be worth the visit. (I'm still trying to figure out how a guy originally from Queens wound up running a restaurant in Roswell.)

One other oddity I ran into was the local liquor laws. Carlsbad allows package sales on Sunday, but not liquor by the drink (meaning you can't sit in a sports bar watching NFL games). Conversely, Roswell has liquor by the drink on Sunday, but not package sales.

 

Anyone who knows what happened to Umut Newberry, former news writer for the Argus, please PM me. She's an old friend with whom I've fallen out of touch over the years.

EDIT: Pressboxer's right about the dislike of Texans and the jealousy of Artesia. Don't know too much about sports there, except that the high school has a good baseball program. The Guadalupe National Park's proximity would be the biggest selling point from my perspective...a beautiful place with some great hiking that isn't heavily touristed because of its remote location. The food's good if you like New Mexican, which I personally consider to be a crown jewel of cuisine. But I imagine that life there can get pretty bleak...

 

Yep. It happens. And makes it tough to adjust your lifestyle and get your job done.