Sports Reporter Arizona Daily Sun

I'm several years removed from this shop, but still know a few of the people there. PM me if you have questions. I'll see what I can answer.

 

Is the AZ Republic still running day-old sports in the edition that Flag gets? As for the cost of living, it's high for a mountain/college town. But you're less than two hours from the north end of Phoenix.

 

No idea on that Stitch. Was out in Phoenix last month but not in Flag, so I couldn't tell you.

Yes, cost of living is high. We liked to call it poverty with a view. Lot of plusses to Flag, though. Cool, eclectic downtown scene. Several breweries in town. Great outdoors stuff. Hiking and mountain biking galore.

 

This also is on my short list of wistful last stops, covering preps, laying out a few pages and having heated discussions about the third outfielder on the all-area softball team. Alas, Mrs. Editude has her (reasonable) reasons for us, after years to get here, of staying here.

 

Charming. Not only is the town in the middle of nowhere, has market penetration of less than 20 percent, gives away too much stuff for free on a website, but plays second fiddle to a metro two hours away. And we wonder why newspapers are in trouble?

 

The Sun does a nice job of covering its local stuff. Good meaty enterprise can often be found in the A section, and the photo staff is top notch. Good reporting staff and the ME is a strong newspaper man who knows what the heck he's doing. As far as sports go, you get into a lot of the "no one cares" mentality when it comes to the local school, Northern Arizona. Attendance has stunk for years at football and basketball games, and high school football wasn't highly attended as I thought it would be in a town of its size. It's just a different kind of town, where lots of people are transplants and others are there for the abundance of outdoor activities. The Phoenix pro teams hold Flag sports fans' attention much more than NAU football or Coconino basketball.

 

I don't think anyone cares about the Republic up in Flag and it's not some remote middle-of-nowhere place. There are a lot worse places to live than here. I don't know about the paper, but the city itself is decent.

 

It's only remote in the sense that there aren't any other big cities very close to it...Two hours from Phoenix. The biggest city to the west is Kingman, two hours away on I-40. Biggest to the east is...uh, Winslow? Holbrook? Gallup? To the north...Page, two hours away? Flag is definitely isolated. But I think a lot of people like it that way. The trendy bumper sticker up there is "Don't PHX FLG"

 

I wouldn't say no one cares about the Republic there, but there are definitely some who take it by default because they don't like the Daily Sun product. I ran into a fair number of people who told me that when I was reporting there -- then again, maybe they just meant I sucked, who knows.

The only time Flagstaff feels like the middle of nowhere is when you have to drive two hours to Sky Harbor to fly. In addition to being 90 minutes from north Phoenix, you're about three-plus hours from Vegas. And, of course, 15 minutes from Tahoe.

If you're going to work at a low-penetration place in a small town, you could do a whole lot worse. I spent six years in Flag and only left because I'd maxed out my opportunities there.

 

You got to be kidding, right? Tahoe is on the border of California and Nevada, not anywhere near Arizona....

 

Relax, chief. The Tahoe thing has been a running gag around these parts for years.

 

Dude, haven't you heard? Everywhere is 15 minutes from Tahoe.