Wednesday, December 18, 2024

Lincoln City Homepage hires Fossum as Sports Editor

Longtime award-winning sportswriter Jim Fossum has returned to covering Lincoln City-area high school and community sports as Sports Editor of LincolnCityHomepage.com.

Jim Fossum
Jim Fossum and wife Patty

Fossum, who documented youth sports throughout Lincoln County for more than 10 years as owner/publisher/editor of SportsLincolnCounty.com, and sports editor/reporter at the Lincoln City News Guard and Newport News-Times, will primarily cover Taft High 7-12 athletics while continuing in his capacity as Editor-in-Chief and Senior Columnist for Las Vegas Raiders Report.

Former longtime Sports Editor of the near-200,000 circulation Las Vegas Review-Journal, Fossum, 60, brings almost 40 years of award-winning experience covering virtually every facet of print and digital journalism to LincolnCityHomepage.com.

“We are beyond fortunate to have Jim and his vast journalism knowledge, numerous local sources and contacts, and invaluable writing, reporting and editing experience back covering our deserving student-athletes in Lincoln City,” site founder/publisher Justin Werner said.

Accompanied with photo and video contributions from Werner and Taft High supporters Eric DeMello, Lonnie French and Heather Hatton, Fossum will spend the remainder of the high school spring sports season providing game-day content and feature stories on the Taft baseball and softball teams, track and field squad, and boys and girls golf programs via email and telephone correspondence with players and coaches from his Las Vegas home.

Jim Fossum SportsFossum, who retired to the Oregon Coast in July 2006, worked a year at the News-Times and six at the News Guard before founding SportsLincolnCounty.com (later OregonCoastSports.com) in March 2014. He returned to Las Vegas in March 2017, where he is Executive Editor of LVRaidersReport.com, a year-old website covering the NFL’s Oakland Raiders and the team’s impending move to Southern Nevada in 2020.

Fossum covered all six Lincoln County high schools (Newport, Taft, Toledo, Waldport, Siletz Valley and Eddyville) in all sports, boys and girls, as well as community sports during his two years operating SportsLincolnCounty.com.

“My immediate goal is to instantly establish LincolnCityHomepage.com as the go-to site in North County for local sports, as well as news,” Fossum said.

Recently retired from full-time work due to vision disabilities, the 1980 Northern Arizona University graduate began his 25-year Las Vegas Review-Journal career in January 1981 as tennis, golf and football beat writer. He was lead reporter for the annual Alan King/Caesars Palace Tennis Classic, featuring Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg, and all three of Las Vegas’ major professional golf tour stops (PGA Tour, Senior PGA Tour and LPGA Tour) as a longtime member of the Golf Writers Association of America.

Also a copy editor and page designer, Fossum became one of the nation’s youngest sports editors at a major metropolitan daily when he was promoted by the Review-Journal at age 33 shortly after covering No. 1-ranked UNLV in the 1991 Final Four in Indianapolis. He was named Nevada Sportswriter of the Year in 1998 by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association.

Winner of numerous writing awards from the Nevada Press Association, his reporting experience includes ringside coverage of several of boxing’s most celebrated world championship prize fights, including title bouts featuring Mike Tyson, Oscar De La Hoya, Alexis Arguello, Marvin Hagler, Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran and Thomas Hearns.

Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Nancy Lopez, Annika Sorenstam, Julius Erving, Larry Bird and Wayne Gretzky are among the many sports superstars he has interviewed, in addition to helping document the careers of Las Vegans Randall Cunningham, Andre Agassi and Greg Maddux.

Honored with numerous Las Vegas community service awards from charitable organizations such as the Muscular Dystrophy Association and the American Cancer Society, Fossum was cited in the late 1990s by the Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame for his contributions to Las Vegas-area athletics.

A longtime member of the Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE), he helped oversee the organization’s annual West Regional Convention for several years at various Las Vegas Strip resorts. He helped recruit APSE’s national convention to the MGM Grand in 2006 after annually attending extensive journalism seminars at many of the country’s largest and most respected major dailies, including the Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Baltimore Sun, Philadelphia Inquirer, Orlando Sentinel, Seattle Times, San Diego Union-Tribune and Dallas Morning News.

As a reporter and columnist, he has covered various world-class sporting events such as NASCAR, the Skins Game and the National Finals Rodeo.

Prior to working at the Review-Journal, he was a sports reporter at the Arizona Daily Sun in Flagstaff, and a correspondent for the Arizona Republic and The Associated Press. He has written numerous advertorials for Golf and Golf Digest magazines, and been a regular contributor to Sports Illustrated.

In 2005, Fossum was honored with Lake Havasu (Ariz.) High School’s Distinguished Alumni Award and delivered his alma mater’s Class of 2006 commencement speech 30 years after graduating.

 

Justin Werner
Justin Wernerhttps://wernerhost.com/
Justin Werner is the founder and editor of the Lincoln City Homepage, a trusted source of local news and information for residents and visitors of Lincoln City, Oregon. He is also a community leader, entrepreneur, and dedicated advocate for transparency and accountability in local government.

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