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| Josh Thomson- Varsity Insider LoHud.com |
From the time Josh Thomson was a little boy he knew all about the Journal News. The Journal News is a daily newspaper that covers Westchester, Putnam, and Rockland counties of New York. So, for Thomson having a job at the Journal News is like being at home.
Thomson graduated from Carmel High School in 1998 and went
on to study at Boston University, where he graduated in 2002 with a degree in
communications. Before joining the Journal News officially, Thomson free lanced
for the paper and co-produced a radio show outside of Boston. He was hired full
time in December of 2004.
Since joining the paper Thomson has covered professional and college, as well as, high school
sports. Thomson has covered numerous sports through out the years, some of
those sports being basketball, baseball, hockey, and golf. He says he's enjoyed hockey the most.
"I think the
Rangers are probably my favorite team to cover because you know the type of
people who play hockey, the guys are really humble and down to earth, and
they're really good generally with the media."
When Thomson isn’t at the Journal News or prepping for the
next event that he is covering, the 34-year old likes to spend his free time
with his wife, Sarah and his daughter, Olivia, who he likes to call Miss
Varsity Insider. A nickname in which she got because of her fathers current
Journal News title. The head of the Varsity Insider blog on the Journal News
website, LoHud.com.
Varsity Insider covers
local high schools sports—specifically football and boys basketball. This blog
covers approximately 80 private and public high schools through out the
coverage area. The blog started in 2006 and quickly became one of the most read
blogs on the Journal News website.
“I think the
Varsity Insider was the first blog that we started.” Thomson said, “And the
response has really been tremendous.”
Although at times
the job can be demanding, Thomson says the hard work and countless hours are
worth it.
“People are so
interested in what your write” Thomson said, “people are reading it and
it kind of drives you to work hard."
Transcribed Interview with Josh Thomson
LF: You’ve covered football, basketball, baseball, high school and you’ve also covered professional and college sports correct?
JT: Yeah, yeah. I covered a lot of the I especially
covered a lot of the Mets, Yankees, Rangers, I covered the Giants and Jets for
a while back. We don’t cover those teams, we used to cover them. We have beat
writers for all the New York teams , so back when I started I did a lot of that
stuff but we don’t do as much of that anymore.
But I still do a lot of the Rangers and Yankees, especially the Rangers.
And then obviously high school I covered um football and basketball as I do
now. But I also covered baseball, lacrosse, hockey, and a little bit of soccer.
A lot of different things.
LF: Right, So what would you say is your favorite sport to
cover? Whether it being college, high school, whatever…
JT: You know, its funny I really like baseball,
basketball, and golf, and I like the NFL too but um I’m not like a huge hockey
fan, but I actually would say that hockey is my favorite thing to cover. I
think the Rangers are probably my favorite team to cover because you know the type of people who play hockey the guys are really humble and down
to earth, and they’re really good generally with the media. And also I don’t
know if you seen a lot of hockey in person but hockey in person is amazing
compared to the product that you see on TV. And I think it’s the best game
to watch live. And Like I said its not my favorite game at all I don’t really
know how to play it or what guys do what, but I think its a lot of fun to
cover it and see it live, so I would probably have to say hockey.
LF: Do you have, is there a specific
sports season that is typically the busiest for you? Like the fall season, the
winter…
JT: Yeah, actually the High school football season would
be the busiest because there is such a demand for it. So, in general of through out, when you are talking about the season as whole, it would be
the football season. But the football season actually gets easier in the
playoffs, because there is fewer teams. Because you know we kind of provide
information about all 70 or 80 high schools during football season because
people care you know there is only one game a week. So I kind of have to keep
tabs on every single team we cover in all the counties and all that. So that
actually gets easier during football because theres so many fewer teams.
Basketball is kind of the opposite, its easier during the regular season
because its really spread out and there aren’t as many games. And we also we
wouldn’t have to, I wouldn’t have to stay on top of every single team. But when
the playoffs start its,that’s, probably the busiest time of the year,
like the week of the county center, is the busiest week of the year for me for
sure. I probably work you know like 80 or 90 hours that week. So I’ll work 7
days a week, and I’ll often get there at you know, 2 in the afternoon or
something and as long as there is no snow – making the days longer- but Ill
get there at 2 in the afternoon and I’ll come home and maybe get something
to eat at like 11:00 but I’ll generally be like working until I’d say 2 in the
morning or 3 in the morning something like that. So, that’s a really busy
week. But again its easy to work really hard, now it doesn’t matter what
you cover what sport you cover you know if you are a football writer and you
cover the superbowl its, even though those weeks would be like the busiest
weeks of your year its also kinda easier to do the work because you are
getting so much response from the public.And people are so interested in
what your write and people are reading it and it kind of drives you to work
hard. So its actually not, even though it’s the busiest week of the year its
not like its that hard. You know cause Its fun. So and I think that
kind of goes, I covered the Stanley cup finals this year and we did a lot of
work for that, and I kind of covered the Rangers through out the whole
playoffs, you know its so much fun because the games are so important, and they
mean so much to so many people that um even though you’re busy its fun you
don’t really think about it. You know?
LF: What would you say like your average, average day
is like?
JT: Oh its, there really is no average. You know its
like, during the summer I don’t work that much, I probably work less than
someone with a normal job you know most weeks um during the summer because I
kinda it’s a little more relaxing theres not as much do to. But then during the
football season or during the basketball play offs you know I would definitely
say that there are a lot of days where I would work you know 11 or 12 hours a
day so um I cant, there really is no average. You know. I definitely
work more than 40 hours a week from the middle of august through the
beginning of April, for sure. Then over the summer you know I would say I
work probably 40 hours a week or less. So yeah.
LF: Can you just explain like what, you know, the
purpose of the Varsity insider blog is…
JT: Can you explain what? I’m Sorry
LF: What the Varsity insider blog is and like why it started
and when it started?
JT: Yeah, obviously you know it covers you
know high school football and boys basketball in our coverage area. Our
coverage area is Westchester, Putnam, and Rockland county. Like I was saying
before it depends on the sport but its somewhere you know its approximately
like 80 high schools total linear to private schools and the public schools. You know there is a certain element to it that is my blog too so if
there is something that I write that I think that would be interesting that
people might be interested in that doesn’t necessarily pertain to high school
football or basketball I definitely will post it, and that could include
something from a different sport. But Generally speaking you know I deal with a
decent amount of stories per year on like athletes that are out of high school
and so that’s still an interest to our readers. So theres a little element to
that. To you know, we write a story about Kevin Jones or something that
still kind of pertains to our readership even though hes in the NBA or the
development league, whatever. So theres that. It started, oh man, around
like 2006 or 2007 I cant remember the exact year. It was just blogs that
I just kinda started out, people were using started to use blogs and we
actually started them for a few different sports but I think the Varsity Insider was the first
blog that we started. And the response has really been tremendous. The
readership that we get on our blogs especially that one for high schools, is
is… I cant imagine theres any blog in the state, that gets more, any high
school blog in new york state that gets more page reviews and visitors per
month than that one does we’ve had months where we’ve had I’d say in excess of
250,000 page reviews in a month, um so that’s a lot. For our newspaper it’s the third most widely
read blog behind our Yankees blog and our rangers blog, and its actually pretty
close to in the big months to the rangers blog so the readership is really uh
tremendous for that so its definitely been uh a great addition to the paper.Yeah yeah theres a lot, its like, you know I say average months we
probably get you know average months during the season we get about 150,000
page reads per month but then like I said at our peak we get about 250,000 so
its pretty good, you’ll get as many on a day where sectional seedings come out
or something we might get 15 or 20 thousand page reads which is a lot for
high school sports obviously.
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