An open letter to the Idaho Statesman

Dear Idaho Statesman,

We know we’ve had our differences over the past few months, what with you being unwieldy and archaic and us being fresh and relevant, but we are prepared to bury the hatchet provided you continue rocking the coverage of fall camp.

Great job yesterday. We loved reading all the news and information you got from the players and coaches. Even hearing your observations was refreshing. You showed us yesterday that somewhere deep inside the structure and bureaucracy of the newsroom lies some knowledge of new media and that, more importantly, you are willing to overcome your fears and ignorance of blogging, uploading, and—dare we say—podcasting in order to provide fans with the copious amounts of Bronco news they desire. Thanks for that.

As a result, we are starting to slowly regain our trust in you, kind of like White Fang regaining his trust in humans. Just don’t tie us to a dog sled and make us race to save the farm! (Or was that Iron Will?) We are coming to appreciate the service you provide for the community of Bronco Nation—a service that up until yesterday was more like the service at the Overland Burger King than anything else.

Speaking of yesterday, let’s recap your newsiness blitzkrieg:

• Chadd Cripe blog: Jeremy Childs news, walk-on information, more Drew Hawkins news than we care to read
• Brian Murphy blog: camp news, WAC quarterback news (better late than never), rumors of suspensions

These instant news updates were supplemented by your always thorough analysis in the print edition, and it worked fairly effectively. More importantly, we could tell that you had been planning this new strategy for quite some time.

Mike Prater: Alright guys, let’s talk about fall camp. How do you think we should approach this?

Chadd Cripe: Well, what does OBNUG do?

Brian Murphy: Post all the time.

Prater: Right! Post all the time! We can do that!

Cripe: Meeting adjourned. Let’s go to Sonic!

Of course, this letter would be incomplete if we failed to address the coming weeks and months. Getting off to a good start is commendable, but keeping your momentum will be the real sign that you have arrived. We imagine that sometime in the next two or three days, you are going to get tired of writing HTML into your blogging program and want to forget the whole thing and go back to throwing news into the print edition. Don’t. That is not what Bronco fans want, and we think you know that.

Keep posting as frequently as you have information. The Press-Tribune does it this way, and we love them for it. You have an advantage that the rest of Bronco Nation does not: access. Use it wisely.

We believe in you for the first time in a long time. Don’t betray our trust. We’d hate to have to eat you like White Fang ate that kid. (Or was that Free Willy?)

Sincerely,
OBNUG