#68. Hank Sims: Shaping Media, Navigating Digital Changes, and Celebrating Community Voices

Scott Hammond: Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, friends and neighbors, Scott Hammond of the 100% Humboldt with my very best new friend, the man, the myth,

Scott Hammond: the legend-

Hank Sims: Mm

Scott Hammond: … Hank Sims. Hi, Hank.

Hank Sims: Hi, Scott. How are you?

Scott Hammond: I'm well, thank you. It's a great… been magical weather for three weeks.

Hank Sims: It's been very nice. I've, uh, b- uh, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: Winter is always… At the, by the end of winter you, you want it to be over.

Scott Hammond: Right. It's, it's too much. It's-

Hank Sims: You know, you know we need it, but-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Hank Sims: … you don't have to like it.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, I th- don't tell anybody, the weather's been magic, and it just rains all the time in Humboldt.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Please don't come here. It's, um… No, it's supposed to rain again in about 10 days.

Hank Sims: Okay. I'll set my watch, man.

Scott Hammond: My, my wife goes, "Oh, you know it's gonna rain. It's gotta rain." I go, "It doesn't have to rain. We can rain in March. I'm fine." I could live in this weather all year long.

Hank Sims: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: I talked to my cousin Doug in Iowa. It's 12 degrees this morning.

Hank Sims: Yeah. Well, oof, yeah, that's not good.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: I'd love to… Tell us, what's your job, and, uh, the Hank Sims story. First of all, what are your, your name, rank, serial number, what do you do? And then I'd love to hear where you were raised and how you got to Humboldt.

Hank Sims: Sure. Well, my name's Hank Sims. I'm, I work for Lost Coast Communications. I'm the editor of the Lost Coast Outpost, which is a, a popular news site in Humboldt County.

Scott Hammond: Fondly known, n- uh, f- fondly known as LOCO.

Hank Sims: Uh, yeah, that's right. Yeah. Uh, and, uh, yeah, I grew up in Willits-

Scott Hammond: Oh

Hank Sims: … just to the south of here, uh, uh, where my mom still lives. And, uh, yeah, that's it. I g- I'm a, I'm a, a, I got a wife and two sons.

Scott Hammond: Nice.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: What brought you to Humboldt County from Mendo?

Hank Sims: Well, we, the, it was the, it was a place where w- I just ended up going to college, you know? I actually dropped out of high school a year early-

Scott Hammond: Oh, wow

Hank Sims: … 'cause I was kinda sick of it, and then went to Mendocino College and then transferred to Humboldt State in 1986.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Hank Sims: Yeah. And then have moved away in, like, young adulthood and back

Hank Sims: about-

Scott Hammond: Where'd you go?

Hank Sims: … seven times. I, one time I went, uh, I, w- I moved to the East Coast. I moved to Rhode Island for just, like, six months.

Scott Hammond: Sorry to hear that.

Hank Sims: No, it was fun. It was great.

Scott Hammond: Was it cool?

Hank Sims: I loved it. And then took off traveling a bunch of times, did some more stints in Willits, moved back to Humboldt, moved down to the Bay Area a couple of times, and then back and forth.

Scott Hammond: It's funny how many people cycle.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: They come back.

Hank Sims: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's, it's a great place to live. No, it's, w- the last time, you know, we moved back here was

Hank Sims: 2002.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Hank Sims: Uh, and just me and my wife, this, this is where we wanna raise our family-

Scott Hammond: Nice

Hank Sims: … buy a house and stuff.

Scott Hammond: How many kids?

Hank Sims: Yeah. I have two sons.

Scott Hammond: All right.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Like, grown?

Hank Sims: Um, one is o- is a senior in high school right now. The other one is all grown, yes.

Scott Hammond: All right. Dad, dad jokes, here they come.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: We all have-

Hank Sims: I've have, I have the license, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Don't… I'm a card-carrying member, and don't worry about it. We may get a couple before we're done here.

Hank Sims: Okay.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: Sounds great.

Scott Hammond: My favorite dad joke, since you asked.

Hank Sims: Uh, yes.

Scott Hammond: Did you hear the one about the mapmaker, Hank, the cartographer, if you will, that couldn't get a job 'cause he had no sense of Yuma?

Hank Sims: Uh, hu- hu- Huma?

Scott Hammond: Yuma.

Hank Sims: Yuma.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, that's a-

Hank Sims: That's-

Scott Hammond: Yeah, I know

Hank Sims: … that, that might work better in Arizona.

Scott Hammond: It's a better Arizona joke.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: I g- I see, like, a minor smile peeking over at Nick going, yeah. He's going, "Whatever." So you came… D- what'd you study at Humboldt?

Hank Sims: At Humboldt State, um, I studied, yeah, a bunch of different things. I cycled through. I was a music major for a while. I was an engineering major for a while. I had split. I'd done a… I was still young and, like, needed to do other things before I graduated.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Hank Sims: But I ended up getting my undergraduate degree from San Francisco State actually in-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Hank Sims: … in Spanish language and liberal studies.

Scott Hammond: Mucho gusto.

Hank Sims: Oh, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, liberal studies, Humboldt State.

Hank Sims: Uh-huh.

Scott Hammond: '82.

Hank Sims: Oh, okay. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Recreation administration.

Hank Sims: Okay. That's great.

Scott Hammond: Kids go, "Majored in recess? What, what is that, Dad?" I said, "Don't worry about it. You go get a degree, and we'll talk."

Hank Sims: Yeah. And then we moved back, and then I moved here. The, I got a, a, a degree in political science from Humboldt-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Hank Sims: … and then a degree in journalism from Berkeley.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Hank Sims: Man.

Scott Hammond: Berkeley. Wow.

Hank Sims: Man.

Scott Hammond: So you're a pretty well-educated dude.

Hank Sims: I guess, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: So I spent a lot of my young life doing that, hanging around universities for too long.

Scott Hammond: Cal, yeah.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: What's the French restaurant that's downtown that's super famous?

Hank Sims: Uh, that is Chez Panisse.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, delicious.

Hank Sims: Yeah. Yeah, it's good. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: I ate there only once, upstairs in the, in the cafe-

Scott Hammond: Yeah, yeah

Hank Sims: … where you don't need a reservation. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, we, um, uh, my son lived in Alameda. They s- they since moved to Amsterdam, uh, with Nike.

Hank Sims: Uh-huh.

Scott Hammond: But they took us there, and it was bomb.

Hank Sims: Oh, yeah, it's great.

Scott Hammond: Pretty, pretty famous, I guess.

Hank Sims: Yeah, yeah, it's-

Scott Hammond: Where? Chez what?

Hank Sims: Uh-huh.

Scott Hammond: Lost bagels?

Hank Sims: Uh, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Chez Bagels.

Hank Sims: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: So, uh, y- you got into journalism with the Journal first?

Hank Sims: Well, I was, um… I'd, I'd written for lots of newspapers before, and I'd gone to journalism before.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Hank Sims: I, uh, journalism school at Berkeley before I worked for the Journal.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Hank Sims: Um, but yeah, I'd, I'd written for, for a lot of, like, local newspapers. Like, where I'm from, I think I was telling Nick about this when I was talking to him a couple, uh, weeks ago, but, you know, where I'm from in Mendocino County, there's a really vibrant, and especially at the time, like, a really vibrant alternative print culture.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Hank Sims: And that's what really sort of, like, hooked me on it.

Scott Hammond: Not the Ukiah Daily Journal.

Hank Sims: Not the Ukiah Daily Journal, but-

Scott Hammond: Not that.

Hank Sims: But, uh, you know, a lot, most papers that, that are g- dead and gone now, the Mendocino Memo, uh, The Lookout, The Anderson Valley Advertiser. It was like-

Scott Hammond: Anderson Valley, I rec- recall that.

Hank Sims: Sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That, that just stopped print publication, I think, last

Hank Sims: year.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: Uh, yeah.

Scott Hammond: That was owned by-

Hank Sims: So shame-

Scott Hammond: … the Journal for a minute, right? Or did they buy that?

Hank Sims: No, it was owned, always owned by this guy Bruce Anderson-

Scott Hammond: Bruce, yeah

Hank Sims: … uh, of, uh, of, uh-

Scott Hammond: Knew Bruce

Hank Sims: … in Brookville. Oh, you did?

Scott Hammond: We used to give Bruce ads for… He would come in once a week.

Hank Sims: Oh.

Scott Hammond: He would scam all the ads out of the Tri-City-

Hank Sims: Okay

Scott Hammond: … and go, "I want PDFs of this, this, and this, and this," and we'd have a packet for Bru- and he was always gracious. He was a nice man.

Hank Sims: Oh, yeah. Yeah, no, he's-

Scott Hammond: Smart guy. He, hey, I'll, he, he didn't have to build an ad. He'd, uh, just come and get our dumb ads done.

Hank Sims: Yeah, there you go.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Yeah.

Hank Sims: Yeah, a very courtly guy.

Scott Hammond: What's-

Hank Sims: I think he's in 90-some now and still kind of-

Scott Hammond: Oh, is that right?

Hank Sims: … still kind of doing it online.

Scott Hammond: So he's still alive and-

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, that was competitive, 'cause it was kinda the more organic Tri-City Weekly, uh, where I worked, because it was just a, a pickup paper, and it was… And its pickup was, its footprint was Mendocino to Crescent

Scott Hammond: City.

Hank Sims: Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh.

Scott Hammond: And so he could go and claim a lot of territory real quick.

Hank Sims: Uh-huh, uh-huh.

Scott Hammond: And s- and say… It wasn't home delivered, but it w-

Hank Sims: I think maybe you're thinking of something else. Like, uh, is it, uh, like, was, the, the paper you're thinking of, was it like a, like the Tri-City, kind of like a, you know, classified ad kind of-

Scott Hammond: It was. It was a little, uh… And I thought his name was Bruce too. Maybe I got it wrong Bruce.

Hank Sims: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: Anderson Valley Advertiser is sort of like a-

Scott Hammond: Regional

Hank Sims: … screaming radical left-wing underground newspaper.

Scott Hammond: Okay, I'm confusing the two.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: This, I'm trying to think of this guy's, uh, paper's name. Doesn't matter, but-

Hank Sims: There was the-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Hank Sims: … Penny Pincher-

Scott Hammond: Yeah, it was k- something

Hank Sims: … in Mendo.

Scott Hammond: It was… Yeah, there was something like that, but this guy was more regional anyway. So a lot of little papers.

Hank Sims: Yeah. That's why I started writing for, for, for newspapers.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Hank Sims: I always thought it was really fun.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: And then, like, I was study- at one time, at one point I was thinking about going on to get a PhD in, like, political science.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Hank Sims: But I, I decided that was a boring career path. I didn't wanna do that.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: So I went back to journalism school.

Scott Hammond: My son's got a PhD fr- in pol- pol- sci-

Hank Sims: Oh, yeah?

Scott Hammond: … from, uh, Davis.

Hank Sims: Uh-huh. Oh, that's good. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And he's working for a, a, a, a Deutsche Bank. You know, he's, he's got-

Hank Sims: Oh

Scott Hammond: … he's got an office way up high, and he just phones it in. He doesn't care.

Hank Sims: Oh, no.

Scott Hammond: He's tired of caring. He goes, "Just come in, and it's a job."

Hank Sims: Uh-huh. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: But he, he's happier that way, so what- whatever, anyway, so.

Hank Sims: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Uh, so, it, from there, uh, passion for journalism led you up to, uh, here in the Journal and-

Hank Sims: Yeah, we wanted to… Yeah, we wanted, my wife and I wanted to move, uh, back up to Humboldt, and I had-

Scott Hammond: Uh-huh

Hank Sims: … the journalism degree. And yeah, I started off, like, just part-time as the Journal, and eventually-

Scott Hammond: Met Judy and, and, uh-

Hank Sims: … full-time

Scott Hammond: … Carolyn.

Hank Sims: Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Where's Carolyn these days? Is she-

Hank Sims: I have no idea

Scott Hammond: … wonder if she's still around.

Hank Sims: I don't know.

Scott Hammond: I see Judy at the winery once in a while, at Fieldbrook.

Hank Sims: Oh, yeah?

Scott Hammond: Yeah, her and Bob.

Hank Sims: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, she's delightful.

Hank Sims: Oh.

Scott Hammond: I like Judy. Anyway, so, so you were there for how long?

Hank Sims: Uh, eight or nine years, I think.

Scott Hammond: Oh, wow.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Were you their main guy, their editor?

Hank Sims: Well, I was, yeah, for, for a while.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Hank Sims: Yeah, for three or four of those years, I think.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Who were some of your writers then?

Hank Sims: Uh, oh, man, we had, we had, uh, classic great writers. Um, Ryan Burns-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Hank Sims: … and Andrew Goff, who both work with me now at the O- at The Outpost.

Scott Hammond: Yep.

Hank Sims: Heidi Walters-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Hank Sims: … Helen Sanderson, uh, Japhet Weeks. We had, we had great people come through, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Where's Heidi? Is she still around?

Hank Sims: Heidi's around here. Yeah, yeah. She's, she, she lives in town. She… They moved away. She and her husband moved to Redding for a while-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Hank Sims: … um, for his job, and then they moved back, and she's happy. My wife and Heidi are, like, in a, a, a, a writers group together.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Hank Sims: They get together every week or so and-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Hank Sims: … write short stories and stuff.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Hey, speaking of which, I wrote a book.

Hank Sims: Oh, yeah?

Scott Hammond: Yeah, if I had to live on it, I'd be dead by now, but-

Hank Sims: Okay.

Scott Hammond: Uh, in a, in a, uh, fit of passion, I, uh-

Hank Sims: Wow

Scott Hammond: … wrote about being a better dad.

Hank Sims: Oh, nice. Geez. Well, you've had lots of practice.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Thanks for catching that.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Just nine kids and, and 11 grandkids.

Hank Sims: That's, that's nuts. Why-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Hank Sims: … how, why?

Scott Hammond: Uh, it's, it's a long sto- it's a long story. I'll tell you it really fast. My mom raised me as a only child in San Diego.

Hank Sims: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: And my dad was absentee. They were alcoholics. And, uh, he came back sober in '73 and kinda made me part of his world, and, um, he sold insurance on Camp Pendel… life insurance to Marines, if you can imagine.

Hank Sims: Oh, wow.

Scott Hammond: Go figure. Do that math.

Hank Sims: Ugh.

Scott Hammond: And he was really quite good at it, 'cause he loved the military. And so, um, came to Humboldt, met Joanie, met Jesus, met sobriety, and met a degree at Humboldt.

Hank Sims: Now, is that how, is that how you got, uh, hooked up with the Tri-City Weekly? Did, did you go back to the Durkin days and that?

Scott Hammond: Not directly. I was kind of a Durkin cousin-

Hank Sims: Oh

Scott Hammond: … if you will. So those guys were all Lighthouse Ranch out at the, uh, Table

Scott Hammond: Bluff.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And then down at Californian Cedar, the go- the old Gospel Outreach, which is now Calvary Chapel Eureka. Um, and I worked for guys that were part of that, but they weren't directly. So the Tri-City came out of, uh, that as a organic job situation for the, for the cult out in the, on the bluff.

Hank Sims: Oh, cult?

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Some people would call it that.

Hank Sims: That's, that's strong words.

Scott Hammond: It's, it's, it's too strong, and they're not a cult. They're lovely. And they, they, they actually have another, uh, permeation called Gospel Outreach over on, um, by Redwood Acres.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: But I digress. So bottom line is, uh, 10 guys took it over. Two guys bought 'em out. And my dad, I always called Ron Pelleggi a, a prince of a man. He took, he took knuckleheads like me and turned me into a good sales guy in Arcata for 15 years. I sold all the ads and competed with, uh, Y'all and David Reed from the Times-Standard. Hi, David.

Scott Hammond: And, um, uh, made a living for, for 11 of us.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Which is unusual on one income.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: In Humboldt.

Hank Sims: It is. It is.

Scott Hammond: I could have had nine homes or nine kids.

Hank Sims: I don't know. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Chose the kids. It, I… Sometimes I wonder about my choices, but-

Hank Sims: I don't know if you could pull that off in this day and age. That's pretty-

Scott Hammond: Be tough. I, and, and I have a shout-out to Joanie Hammond. I have, I have a lovely wife who, uh, I'm, like you, luckily I married up.

Hank Sims: Mm.

Scott Hammond: And we're quite blessed and amazingly… I was gonna say lucky, but I don't believe in luck, so I won't use that word.

Scott Hammond: Anyway.

Hank Sims: Mm.

Scott Hammond: So yeah, uh, in the day, Tri-City was a lot of fun. It was, we… It was purely ads and classifieds and home delivered and done by a- the kids from HCAR, the, used to be the Humboldt County Association of the Retarded.

Hank Sims: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Which we don't use the R-word anymore.

Hank Sims: Mm.

Scott Hammond: And now it stands for something else. But they were the most faithful, wonderful, loving delivery kids in the world, and, and Ron made sure of it. As the prince of a guy that my dad called him, he made sure all these guys had jobs.

Hank Sims: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: And the Times-Standard just shut that all down-

Hank Sims: Mm

Scott Hammond: … just recently.

Hank Sims: Yes.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: Yeah, yeah, Tri-City is no more.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: Yeah, it was, that, that was, that was something else because it was always… You know, it, the Tri-City had gone through, like, a couple of iterations. It'd been a couple of different things just throughout my Humboldt County-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Hank Sims: … experience. And then-

Scott Hammond: I would say arguably the Tri-City went away in about 2016 maybe, or even earlier. When I transitioned over to, uh, in '04, it was, it was starting to go bye-bye, and the Times-Standard picked it up.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Media News and Dean Singleton for a song.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Maybe not. It was pretty money. And so bottom line is, uh, th- they took it and, and divested. It crashed it.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And they used it as a wrap for Safeway.

Hank Sims: Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Anyway.

Hank Sims: Yeah. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: Sure.

Scott Hammond: Why am I talking all about me? I-

Hank Sims: I don't know. I like-

Scott Hammond: I like this idea

Hank Sims: … 'cause I like these stories.

Scott Hammond: There's a little background. So you, how, how did you transition over to Patrick Cleary and KHUM and Lost Coast Outpost and, and, and how did you spawn that? Because that's, uh, one might argue it's kind of a brilliant early move into digital.

Hank Sims: Yeah. Well, at the time felt right, uh, if just as far as that goes. Yeah. I mean, personally too, I think the, uh, has, has done everything I was gonna do with the Journal.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Hank Sims: Uh, so, uh, yeah, it, it's… The time felt right sort of nationally, um, to just at the state of media-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Hank Sims: … that it had reached a point where you could, you could plausibly make from the ground up a digital only product. And when working for Lost Coast Communications, where they already had

Hank Sims: salespeople-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Hank Sims: … you know, they could, uh, they would have something else to sell, like a news

Hank Sims: product.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Hank Sims: So it started off kind of small, just myself-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Hank Sims: … and we, yeah, we, we, we took the bet that it was the right time to strike.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: Um, and, and, you know, we could shed ourselves, you would, of all the things that you used to need to be, like, a, you know, sort of text-based news operation.

Scott Hammond: A printing, say a printing press or-

Hank Sims: A printing… Exactly

Scott Hammond: … or kids on bikes.

Hank Sims: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And so, uh, yeah, 'cause everybody has, like, the, you know, the delivery system and the, you know, the printing press in their pocket. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Brought mine with me.

Hank Sims: Yeah, exactly.

Scott Hammond: Um, yeah. Uh, so it was time. And, and you were… I, I think the radio stations were on their top of their game about that time too. They were doing very well, right?

Hank Sims: Yeah. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And remember that KHUM was, like, the talk of the town and-

Hank Sims: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … and Cliff and everybody were just rocking the world and-

Hank Sims: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … the free world and-

Hank Sims: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … so, and then Patrick said, and Patrick's a forward thinker, and he probably said, "Hey, this, who's this Hank guy?"

Hank Sims: Oh, yeah. Well, I'd known Patrick a little bit from reporting, you know-

Scott Hammond: Uh-huh

Hank Sims: … just from being around town, 'cause he'd always-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Hank Sims: … you know, he's always a little bit of a-

Scott Hammond: Hey, Pat

Hank Sims: … mover and a shaker. Sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Lovely guy. I like Pat.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Um, so he, he wrote you a really large check and said, "Come on board"?

Hank Sims: Yeah. No, we started off bare bones, you know? And I'm happy with that, you know-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Hank Sims: … because we-

Scott Hammond: I love it

Hank Sims: … uh, you know, we wanted, we wanted to build a profitable thing from the

Hank Sims: beginning.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Hank Sims: And so it was just me and a computer and, uh, you know, uh, some space on the server farm in Fremont. And, uh, you know, we just saw what we could build. And, uh, yeah, we, we gr- we grew from there-

Scott Hammond: That's cool

Hank Sims: … always trying to stay something close to, to break even, you know?

Hank Sims: Uh-

Scott Hammond: So you did… Y- The server was in Fremont or you were?

Hank Sims: No, the ser- the, the, just the machine that… When you go to lostcoastoutpost.com on your, on your phone-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Hank Sims: … it's a, it's a machine in Fremont that, uh-

Scott Hammond: Still is

Hank Sims: … gets that request, yeah, and-

Scott Hammond: Okay

Hank Sims: … and answers. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Oh, that's funny.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: So was this by the time we had, uh, what's, what's it called when you have a second, uh, internet line out? We had, uh, a d- a dual internet to, to Redding.

Hank Sims: Oh, yeah. The, the, the, the, the, the-

Scott Hammond: Redundant system

Hank Sims: … redundant fiber.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Would've been about that time, right?

Hank Sims: Uh, it's, I mean, yeah, it, yeah, it was actually. It was about the time.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And fiber got quicker and Suddenlink kinda… I, I don't know if you're on a Suddenlink server. Probably not.

Hank Sims: Yeah, no, uh, no. The, the, our, the server is, yeah, it's just like in a server farm that you just rent space from.

Scott Hammond: Gotcha.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Gotcha.

Hank Sims: Mm.

Scott Hammond: And then you just sort of built on, uh, this local idea.

Hank Sims: Yeah. And, you know, we s- you know, added new people-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Hank Sims: … added new things, added new features. And it's all-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Hank Sims: … it's still constantly sort of changing. It's gonna be… You know, it's changing a lot now because-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Hank Sims: … we're, we've… You know, for a while our office was in Eureka, and the radio stations, w- Lost Coast Communications, the radio stations were in Ferndale, and now we're all moved in together in one-

Scott Hammond: One big happy family.

Hank Sims: Yeah. And we're figuring out, like-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Hank Sims: … k- cool things to do with that.

Scott Hammond: Has anybody been in any fights yet or throwing things?

Hank Sims: Not yet. No.

Scott Hammond: The siblings are doing fine.

Hank Sims: Yeah, no. It's good. Yeah, it's ex- it's exciting.

Scott Hammond: I like it. So question on, on this level. What… I- if, if I were to ask you in a couple of minutes, said, "I'm just a dumb guy that's coming, tuning in," uh, what, what i- what is a loco? I mean, what is a digital newspaper? What's your, what's your s- what's your business prop? What's your theory, uh, slogan? What's your campaign statement here?

Hank Sims: Yeah. I mean, uh, uh-

Scott Hammond: What, what is it?

Hank Sims: I've got a couple of slogans. Uh, you know, we've always had, been Humboldt County's homepage for a long time. That was the theory.

Scott Hammond: That's cool.

Hank Sims: Um, and when challenged a while ago to make up a, you know, uh, to make up a little bit more of a mission statement, I think I sort of came up with, like, "The m- the mission of the Lost Coast Outpost is, uh, is to, is, uh, uh, by, for, and about Humboldt County. We chronicle its days."

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Hank Sims: "We interrogate its flaws, and we celebrate its, its, uh, you know, something, its, its, its victories, its, its,

Hank Sims: its beauty."

Scott Hammond: Its beaut- I like that.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: That's strong. So you're kind of an archivist in a way.

Hank Sims: That's, but yeah.

Scott Hammond: You're archival by nature.

Hank Sims: For sure. Uh, yeah, I mean, the, the journalism, you know, newspapers-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Hank Sims: … and, you know, news has always been about that.

Hank Sims: Um-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Hank Sims: … you know, just to getting on record and telling-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Hank Sims: … people about what's going-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Hank Sims: … and preserving it. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. And finding the good stories.

Hank Sims: Yeah, for sure.

Scott Hammond: And not recycling the other guys.

Hank Sims: Uh, that's… We try not to… Yeah. We try to do… We try, yeah, we try to do original work, for sure.

Scott Hammond: Sure. Well, you know, and when you think of it, I think, um, Time Standard, uh, debatably or not, has content. Um, Journal still creates content, and, and y'all.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: So pretty soon, that's a lot of content for a small market, right?

Hank Sims: Oh, and there's lots more than that, too.

Hank Sims: You know?

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: It's a, it's a, yeah, it's a, it's a really rich media space-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Hank Sims: … in Humboldt.

Scott Hammond: And so the concern, uh, that I've read about is that all these guys co-opt, Zuckerberg or whomever, will co-opt that content and use it on a, on a more regional or national, international basis.

Hank Sims: Yeah. I mean, that happens to some extent.

Hank Sims: I mean-

Scott Hammond: That's, that's the deal today, right?

Hank Sims: Yeah, a little bit. I mean, you know, we have… So, like, our Face- we have a Facebook page-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Hank Sims: … uh, you know, just, uh, to, to address that. And, you know, we have 106,000 Facebook fans or something

Hank Sims: like that.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Hank Sims: You know, people who follow us on Facebook. So in some sense, you know, we are, we are, you know, providing Z- you know, Zuckerberg-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Hank Sims: … uh, Facebook, Google-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Hank Sims: … with, you know, with stuff. You know, we're one small drop in a very, very large ocean, but all of us together and, you know, people posting pics of their kids are, you know, making this business model for Zuckerberg. On the other hand, I mean, we work within that ecosystem. You know, we get a lot out of it, too.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: You know? Uh, we get, you know, people coming to our website from that, from Google News, from-

Scott Hammond: Get new hits and-

Hank Sims: … those kind of sources

Scott Hammond: … new followers and-

Hank Sims: Yeah. I mean, I think that we're lucky in that we, you know, the Lost Coast Outpost itself has been able to sort of, like, transcend what a lot of people-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Hank Sims: … you know, a lot of people depend on, like social media for, for, you know, people discovering their website. And I think because we started early, and I think because Humboldt County is such a, a inward-facing place-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Hank Sims: … in some ways, that people come to our website, you know, whether or not they see something in their Facebook. People wake up in the morning and type in their URL-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Hank Sims: … our URL into their web browsers, and we get, you know, a great deal of traffic that way.

Scott Hammond: Which is the ideal.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Well, it was the whole idea from, from the get-go.

Hank Sims: For sure. And we have lots of other things too. You know, we c- we can send push notifications to people's phones when a new story is posted or-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Hank Sims: … or, you know, we just r- reach out in lots of ways.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. I mean, you're on my screen now, but it took Patrick to do it for me. Thanks. Again, hello, Patrick. Um, is there, is there a reason there's not… I- is there an app now?

Hank Sims: There's no app. Um, and-

Scott Hammond: Is there a reason for that?

Hank Sims: There's a rea- The reason is, I mean, and maybe we, you know, this is something we'll pursue, uh, at some point, but it's cost-

Scott Hammond: No one's ever asked that, right?

Hank Sims: Yeah. No, they have. Uh, it's costly.

Hank Sims: Uh-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Hank Sims: … and then you are sort of dependent on the Google and Apple, like, distributing it, and, and they're working within their ecosystem rather than the open web, which is, is just much… It's, it's easier to do what you want to do-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Hank Sims: … I guess, and it's, and it's, yeah, and it's much cheaper, too.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Hank Sims: But everything, everything that you want, uh-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Hank Sims: … you know, you could… You know, Patrick got you the app on your phone.

Scott Hammond: Wasn't that hard.

Hank Sims: Yeah. It's not that hard. Um, and maybe we should highlight instructions for that again. We do that from time to time.

Scott Hammond: I'm old. I don't know why I couldn't get it.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: I'm pretty good on a computer, but…

Hank Sims: Yeah. So I mean, and, you know, once you get it, uh, saved to your phone, this, you, should be easy for most people. Just, like, save to phone.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Hank Sims: Um-

Scott Hammond: And it's fast.

Hank Sims: And it's fast, and it, uh-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Hank Sims: … and it's, you know, you can get notifications like you would on any other kind

Hank Sims: of app.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Hank Sims: So that's- M- but, but yeah, I don't know. It is, it is nice to be in the App Store, I suppose.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Hank Sims: But it's, you know, it's a big investment and the-

Scott Hammond: Sure. It's the next step

Hank Sims: … the payoff is not exactly clear, except-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Hank Sims: … you get that much easier for people.

Scott Hammond: So what are… W- uh, talk metrics for a minute. How many unique users and hit… I mean, you get cl- far and away the biggest website in the county,

Scott Hammond: right?

Hank Sims: I think so. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Or certainly other… I can't think of another media outlet. And who else would have a bigger traffic count?

Hank Sims: Probably no one.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: I mean, probably we're the biggest.

Hank Sims: Yeah. We-

Scott Hammond: Maybe in the North State I would think. I would… I don't know if there's, if Reading Searchlight has any-

Hank Sims: Well, see, the problem with that, The Time-Standard and the, you know, the Searchlight and those kind of things, they're behind paywalls.

Hank Sims: So, uh-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Hank Sims: … so that, that's gonna hurt your traffic, you know?

Scott Hammond: Big time.

Hank Sims: Um, yeah.

Scott Hammond: People get frustrated. I have 80 ads to read a half an article.

Hank Sims: Uh huh. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: Yeah. And we try to keep that stuff simple, too. But yeah, so we have usually a, like 300, 350,000, what they call unique visitors a month.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Hank Sims: Um, and-

Scott Hammond: That's pretty good metrics, right? I mean, by anybody's standard.

Hank Sims: I think so. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Nationally or regionally.

Hank Sims: Yeah, it's pretty good. Yeah, definitely.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Hank Sims: And, uh, yeah, and yeah, and about, you know, three and a half

Hank Sims: million, uh, page, what they call page views, you know?

Hank Sims: So people-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Hank Sims: … look at a page on the website-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Hank Sims: … that's a page view. So, you know, with that kind of, we're able to build, uh, you know… Advertising can be real cheap, you

Hank Sims: know?

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Hank Sims: Um, because you can buy just, you know, a small portion of that

Hank Sims: audience.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Hank Sims: Because, and because the audience is so huge, you're reaching a huge number of

Hank Sims: people-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Hank Sims: … as an advertise- this isn't my business, Scott, but, uh-

Scott Hammond: Yeah, no

Hank Sims: … uh, but, you know, you-

Scott Hammond: But you should know this.

Hank Sims: Yeah. I kind of have to know it.

Scott Hammond: You gotta, you gotta pitch it every once in a while.

Hank Sims: Yeah. So-

Scott Hammond: No, it's good to know

Hank Sims: … no, yeah, I'm not, I'm not pitching advertisers out there.

Hank Sims: You can-

Scott Hammond: No, I love it though. I gotta call Patrick Suzreda.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Or, uh, my guy.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Anyway.

Hank Sims: Yeah, you can reach a, you can reach a, a, a lot of people, uh, really, you know, pretty inexpensively, and s- we think it's a good value.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. No, I, I, I agree.

Hank Sims: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: And I should agree so much I should put my money where in my mouth.

Hank Sims: Hey, yeah.

Scott Hammond: I've been threatening.

Hank Sims: Yeah, advertise the podcast.

Scott Hammond: I've known Bo- Bobby Olson forever and-

Hank Sims: Oh, yeah

Scott Hammond: … and certainly, uh, Shane and others, so.

Hank Sims: Cool.

Scott Hammond: Um, so tell me more about, um, your competitive position. I- it's driven by money.

Hank Sims: Well-

Scott Hammond: I mean, it has to pay for itself.

Hank Sims: Well, sure, it has to pay for itself.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Hank Sims: Yeah. Um, but you know, we… We're not, you know, our editorial m- we, we are, I really think it's still, you know, uh, bifurcated. Like the, the news industry-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Hank Sims: … is a hard thing for some people to get their heads around because, like, people have different goals. Like our, my job-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Hank Sims: … as editor and, you know, as, as all our writers' jobs, our job is to g- is to talk to the audience. We work for the readers.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Hank Sims: You know? And then, and then the sales people say, say like, "Hey, look, they got this big audience. You wanna get in front of them? Like, you can buy an advertisement." So it is kind of like a bifurcated, like a

Hank Sims: double-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Hank Sims: … mission, you know?

Scott Hammond: Sure. Unlike, uh, CNN or Fox News, which is cr-

Hank Sims: Well, yeah

Scott Hammond: … creating talking heads to create audience to create revenue.

Hank Sims: Yeah, I guess so. I mean, I, I guess so. I mean, we could do… You know, we know that we could do things differently and get a lot more page views, you know?

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Hank Sims: But there, there are just things that we don't want to do because we don't think that they're good for anybody.

Scott Hammond: For the reader. For the county.

Hank Sims: They're not good for the county, and they're not good for our… You know, like I say, we work for the readers.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Hank Sims: And, you know, it would be, it would be an easy thing to, like, hype up our

Hank Sims: readers-

Scott Hammond: Right

Hank Sims: … and to make them afraid of every single thing, oh, my God, going on in the

Hank Sims: world.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Is it okay if we talk about your troll readers real quick?

Hank Sims: Sure.

Scott Hammond: I mean, it's like, it's like the nasty people that live in the back.

Hank Sims: Uh-huh.

Scott Hammond: It's, so, so some of the trolls have, have been, uh, uh,

Scott Hammond: um, lack decorum.

Hank Sims: Oh, sure.

Scott Hammond: Let me be really nice.

Hank Sims: Well, yeah.

Scott Hammond: No, they're a-holes. So th- maybe that's better.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Um, uh, what… How do, how do you view that as the editor? I mean, they're, they're part of the community and, and the cowards that they

Scott Hammond: are.

Hank Sims: Mm.

Scott Hammond: And some of them put their names on it.

Scott Hammond: I, I get it.

Hank Sims: Yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: So you can find them. But-

Hank Sims: Well, I mean, on, on our page, like, uh, again, I was, I was talking about this with Nick a few weeks ago, but, like, on our, our… We don't really… On, on our page itself, we don't really get a lot of nasty comments anymore because the, the, we made the decision, uh, that, you know, we had to, you know, the, this is… We just had to stop. It was getting too much for people. It was blowing their brains out.

Scott Hammond: You're writing your own articles. That's what kind of-

Hank Sims: Yeah. I mean, and we like to hear feedback from people, too.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Hank Sims: You know? And we want, I, I want intelligent, like-

Scott Hammond: A thoughtful let-

Hank Sims: … challenge or commentary

Scott Hammond: … a thoughtful letter to the editor, yeah.

Hank Sims: Yeah. I want, I want all that stuff. I want insightful, like-

Scott Hammond: Cool

Hank Sims: … insights into my work. But the problem is, too, if you like, i- i- is that people will, you know, people will hijack that sort of mechanism-

Scott Hammond: And get vicious

Hank Sims: … to… Well, yeah, to get vicious.

Hank Sims: Sure.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: I mean, I don't mind the viciousness so much.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Hank Sims: Um, but so where that happens now is on social media.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: Like, that's, that's where people are really nasty.

Hank Sims: Like-

Scott Hammond: Oh, geez

Hank Sims: … and it's usually associated with their names. Like, you're right. Yeah, people-

Scott Hammond: It's funny

Hank Sims: … people are, are unleashed.

Scott Hammond: So would, so would Pastor Bethany get vicious feedback?

Hank Sims: Sometimes.

Scott Hammond: I mean-

Hank Sims: I think so

Scott Hammond: … if you ever met her, she's, like, the most non-vicious-

Hank Sims: Of course, yeah

Scott Hammond: … recipient. Earn- earned it.

Hank Sims: Yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: You'd never… Um, yeah, so interesting. Yeah. They're part, they're part of the big happy family.

Hank Sims: Yeah, yeah. Um, yeah, I guess so. I mean, you know, they kind of, they kind of… You know, we used to be much, we used to be much closer to our

Hank Sims: readership.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Hank Sims: Um, just, you know- Be, it was more of a conversation.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Hank Sims: And yeah, now it just can't, it kinda can't be.

Hank Sims: Um-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Hank Sims: … and whether that's, I think that's a function of two things, like us growing up and becoming bigger.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Hank Sims: Um, and, and, uh, and, um, and just the way that the country and the way-

Scott Hammond: Ah

Hank Sims: … the internet itself-

Scott Hammond: I was gonna ask that

Hank Sims: … has evolved.

Scott Hammond: The division of America and the world.

Hank Sims: Yeah, I think so.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: I think that's, yeah, that it, it drives people to distraction, I think.

Scott Hammond: It's f- it's like driving a car. I can be a real vicious mofo and, and give everybody the number one signal-

Hank Sims: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … when I'm behind the wheel, and be the nicest guy in the podcast-

Hank Sims: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … or get behind a computer and become a real troll.

Hank Sims: Yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: It's, it's, it, it's kind of a weird permission b- talk about

Scott Hammond: bifurcation.

Hank Sims: Yeah. Well, it's, it, I often think that, like, um, it's just that people are so, people get so wrapped up, like, sort of in national politics-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Hank Sims: … like, uh, in, you know, right versus left, Democrat versus Republican.

Scott Hammond: Sure, we see it today.

Hank Sims: And, and, and they, they get, they, that it, it captures their imagination so much-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm

Hank Sims: … that they, you know, that they are just constantly have to be at war.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: And they expect me to take a side in that war.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Hank Sims: Uh, they expect, you know, they expect, they, they expect that war to consume

Hank Sims: all media.

Scott Hammond: You're just on the ground.

Hank Sims: I just don't want any- I don't want any part of that war, you know?

Scott Hammond: Oh, you can't. Yeah.

Hank Sims: It's, yeah, yeah, I just-

Scott Hammond: Right

Hank Sims: … it's, it's just boring to me, you know?

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: I don't know. I j- I, I just wanna write about, like, the, you know, the people… I, I just wanna be a, for Humboldt, you know? And Humboldt-

Scott Hammond: Right, bigger mission

Hank Sims: … and our culture, our, yeah, it's, I think it's bigger.

Scott Hammond: So it's kind of a Switzerland role to be, kind of maintain a neutrality of sorts?

Hank Sims: I guess, except I just, yeah, I just don't want, I, I, I, you know, I don't wanna participate in it.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: I don't care about national politics in, in, in a professional sense, you know?

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: I want to tell the stories of people living in Humboldt County.

Scott Hammond: That's your mission, yeah.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Back to the mission statement.

Hank Sims: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But people, I think that, like, you know, trolls from either side, uh, uh, you know, are usually people who are wrapped up in this-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Hank Sims: … you know, goal of, of, like, winning something, winning an election, you know?

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Hank Sims: Winning, you know, your side being victorious.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Hank Sims: I just don't care about that.

Scott Hammond: I've had my mind changed so many times by really good writing trolls.

Hank Sims: Oh, yeah?

Scott Hammond: No, I'm kidding.

Hank Sims: Oh, no.

Scott Hammond: No, they really persuaded me with their-

Hank Sims: I don't know, I think troll-

Scott Hammond: … with their rhetoric

Hank Sims: … like, trolling can sometimes be fun. I c- you know, it, it's just the, the, um-

Scott Hammond: Oh, yeah

Hank Sims: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … the, the provokers, the provoc-

Hank Sims: Yeah, there's, there's the-

Scott Hammond: … provocateurs that are out there.

Hank Sims: Sure, there's wit and there's irony, and there's a, stuff you can-

Scott Hammond: So there's an artwork, an art to trolling.

Hank Sims: Yeah, sure.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Hank Sims: Yeah, absolutely.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Hank Sims: No, there is.

Scott Hammond: Hadn't thought of that, but-

Hank Sims: It's just the, yeah, it, it, yeah. Yeah, no, for sure. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Interesting. So-

Hank Sims: Trolling and, trolling strictly defined maybe, Scott, like-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Hank Sims: … like, uh, uh, yeah, you know, uh, uh, uh, yeah, using wit and irony and stuff-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Hank Sims: … to make a point.

Scott Hammond: You know, and I think back to your, your division theory, which is a real thread in this podcast. You know, we, we've been divided now for, uh, 200 years, but a lot for the last, you know,

Scott Hammond: 25 months-

Hank Sims: Mm

Scott Hammond: … uh, or longer. Uh, it's really interesting to me. Uh, I think Jason, Bethany's husband, last night, he was in our home and we were in a, a group, and he, he said, "You know, a lot of people are just feeling

Scott Hammond: chaotic."

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And I thought, "That's good. That's a good word." They're j- they're divided up inside, on every side. Just, like, it, it's a time of change and, and some heavy chaos after the change of leadership, and I thought, "Hmm." And I wonder if that somehow reflects sometimes in the, the commentary.

Hank Sims: Yeah, I mean, I think, I think so. I mean, it's kind of, we've kind of set it our mission, you know,

Hank Sims: to, to, you know, or we've talked about, like, sort of, like, really being good about i- ignoring taking the bait on any of this.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Hank Sims: We wanna write about, we wanna write about things happening here, and sometimes things happening here are going to be ha- affected by things happening out there.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Hank Sims: But, um, you know, but, but it would be so easy and, you know, and, and so sad to just to, like, you know, to take up arms and, you know-

Scott Hammond: Right

Hank Sims: … uh, and I just don't wanna do that.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Hank Sims: I, I just think that that's-

Scott Hammond: It would be a devaluation of the product.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: For sure. Yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: I like that, yeah. So we got some good stories about some of your writing and some of the adventures of LoCo, and- Would anything come to mind in terms of something, like, that really, this one guy came in the studio with no clothes, or any- … any sort of, like, one-off outlier, uh, stories that-

Hank Sims: Hmm

Scott Hammond: … maybe-

Hank Sims: I don't know

Scott Hammond: … wrote award-winning stuff?

Hank Sims: Oh, yeah. We, we have-

Scott Hammond: Pulitzer Prize?

Hank Sims: We've done, well, not, not a Pulitzer Prize yet, but yeah, no, we've done lots of great work. You know, my colleague, Brian Burns, um, you know, has been just a really longtime investigative reporter in Humboldt County, and has, has, you know, done it for 12 years at, or 15 years at the Journal and for us.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Hank Sims: And I think he still produces the, you know, the best, most impactful

Hank Sims: work-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Hank Sims: … on the North Coast, yeah. Um, and he's been recognized for that, and I, for a couple years ago, I won an award, uh, for, for, for the stuff I did on redistricting in Humboldt County-

Scott Hammond: Okay

Hank Sims: … 'cause I'm good with, like, numbers and stuff, and maps.

Scott Hammond: You have to be connected too to get all the, I mean, as a, a reporter, I can only

Scott Hammond: imagine you gotta have connections-

Hank Sims: Sure

Scott Hammond: … and sources-

Hank Sims: Sure, for sure

Scott Hammond: … and relationships.

Hank Sims: Yeah, for sure. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: And yeah.

Scott Hammond: They're pretty important.

Hank Sims: Yeah, and that, and I'm proud of that too. Like, our, our reporting staff, and so Izzy Vanderheiden, who writes for us-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Hank Sims: … has worked for the Time-Standard and KMUD, and has been up here for 10 years. Our people are, you know, uh, we have one guy, a, a really good writer, Desmond Remington, who just came out of, uh, Humboldt State Journalism School, and he's starting-

Scott Hammond: Nice

Hank Sims: … Cal Poly Humboldt Journalism School.

Scott Hammond: Cal Poly, Cal Poly Humboldt.

Hank Sims: Thank, thank you, Scott. Uh, but you know, I, I think that that, you know, is, uh, that's, that's just real important to me too, that we, uh, pay people well and we do important work. Yeah, and all, all-

Scott Hammond: Super valuable

Hank Sims: … all of our writers, like, you know, try to do im- or do important

Hank Sims: work, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Well-informed community is a good thing.

Hank Sims: I, I think so, yeah. It's hard.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: Yeah. People, people, you know, people are reading less and less.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: Um, and so we have to find other ways to reach people as well. Some things you can't do but in words, but-

Scott Hammond: What do they call that, death scrolling through?

Hank Sims: Yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: I'm death scrolling at pictures.

Hank Sims: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Look, it's another thing.

Hank Sims: Yeah, right. Exactly.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, so weird. I just, wow.

Scott Hammond: Um, so Patrick mentioned that you became really adroit. I've been waiting all day to use that word.

Hank Sims: Oh, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Got that at Cal Poly. Uh, $2 word. The, you've become really good at pulling in sources and, and electronically pulling in other feeds, like the Elsewhere

Scott Hammond: section.

Hank Sims: Sure.

Scott Hammond: Um, I'd like to hear about that, but I'd also like to hear about how you kinda based the foundation of, of, of the, of the product. So you started with a homepage.

Hank Sims: Uh-huh.

Scott Hammond: You started with, uh, Booked, all the cop stuff, all the-

Hank Sims: Uh-huh

Scott Hammond: … uh, how did… And the obit page is unparalleled.

Hank Sims: Oh, thank you. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Um, what, how did it all build? How did you build it out, and what, what was your process?

Hank Sims: Just-

Scott Hammond: And what, what came first?

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: News, news, right?

Hank Sims: Yeah, yeah, news. Or, yeah, news and, you know, n- n- yeah, it was much more blog-like in the beginning.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Hank Sims: You know? 'Cause it was just me, and there was only, you know, and, and the radio

Hank Sims: people. Um-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Hank Sims: … so it was much, it was much simpler, and this has grown piece by piece-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Hank Sims: … and person by person over time. So, you know, I can remember when I made the case, like, "Oh, we should, we should publish obituaries," 'cause it always, it's one of the things that always made me so angry is that the newspapers would charge-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Hank Sims: … grieving families so much-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Hank Sims: … or really a lot of money to have their obituary run in the newspaper.

Scott Hammond: Oh my gosh

Hank Sims: When at the same time, people picked up, bought the newspaper just for that, and it seemed to me as, like, a sort of double-dipping.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: Um, and, uh-

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Take advantage

Hank Sims: … yeah, it's taking advantage of people in grief-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Hank Sims: … uh, you know? And I know that people want to read those things, so we just said, "Oh, we'll do them for free," uh, for, for people who are-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Hank Sims: … living in Humboldt County at the time.

Scott Hammond: But you have to live here.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: There's, yeah, that gets going on.

Hank Sims: But, um-

Scott Hammond: That's fair, though. I mean, otherwise you'd have a, a million obits.

Hank Sims: We have.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: Yeah, yeah, yeah. We, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Gotta, gotta sort 'em somehow.

Hank Sims: Yeah, that's correct. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Isn't there a rule that you had to live here for, uh, you gotta, did you have to die

Scott Hammond: here?

Hank Sims: I say, no, I say that you have to have been living here at the time of your passing-

Scott Hammond: Okay

Hank Sims: … or that you will be interred with some sort of public services here.

Scott Hammond: So you have some discretion.

Hank Sims: S- well, yeah, I mean, well, I don't know. I try not to have discretion because I don't want to tell grieving families like, "Nah, I don't want your guy's obit."

Scott Hammond: Correct. Yeah.

Hank Sims: You know? I just, I just wanna, I, you know, have as objective as rules as I can get, and then-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Hank Sims: … I can, you know, u- objectively verify.

Hank Sims: So-

Scott Hammond: So keep it local

Hank Sims: … so if you have, if you're being buried at Greenwood Cemetery and you're-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Hank Sims: … gonna have, you know, uh, uh, services-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Hank Sims: … then I figure you're, that's, that's Humboldt enough that people will want to know about it, that local people will want to know about it, you know?

Scott Hammond: Greenwood Cemetery, right here on my prop map.

Hank Sims: Oh.

Scott Hammond: Right over there in Arcata. You see it, where Arcata sits right-

Hank Sims: Uh-huh

Scott Hammond: … yeah, it's that map.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Just wanted you to notice the map.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Um- … um, what a cool map. This Metzger's map, by the way.

Hank Sims: Yeah. It's cool.

Scott Hammond: This, I'm, I'm, I'm selling these. No, I'm kidding.

Scott Hammond: I'm kidding.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: I don't sell maps. Uh, Alice Art does though, and this is the best deal they have in the whole store.

Hank Sims: Oh, I need one of those.

Scott Hammond: And it's cool. If you're a local and you got one of these maps-

Hank Sims: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … you could sit there and stand and stare at that stuff and go, "Oh, Hammond Lumber, I knew where that… Oh."

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: "That's my great-great-grandpa."

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Just kidding. No relation.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: So, uh, no, I, I, uh, I appreciate that. So y- so the build-out happened. New- news is the foundation.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And then, and then it got more l- localized and, and-

Hank Sims: Well, it's al- yeah, it's always been localized, but, you know, we just, you know, new features. We try new things.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Hank Sims: You know, we do like, uh, you know, nowadays we usually do, like, a daily

Hank Sims: poll-

Scott Hammond: Right. Yeah

Hank Sims: … you know, to end the day. My theory is you always start the day smart and end the day dumb, so you end-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Hank Sims: … on the poll, which is just easy. You just can click. But we, you know, we've been-

Scott Hammond: It's a good theory

Hank Sims: … yeah.

Scott Hammond: I'm, I'm experiencing that right now.

Hank Sims: Yeah. No. Um, you know, so we've b- we've done a bunch of different things, some things we used to do and stopped doing.

Scott Hammond: Oh.

Hank Sims: You know, we just keep trying to do new, interesting things-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Hank Sims: … as far as just, like, the editorial product.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Hank Sims: What, what you're talking about with the, uh, with the bringing in other sources-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Hank Sims: … well, that, I mean, basically, yeah, what, w- you know, in the old days, newspapers, people had a tip sheet, right? They'd go down to the, to the, to the courthouse in the morning and see who's been

Hank Sims: arrested.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Hank Sims: Uh, or they'd, you know, keep the scanner on in their ears and, like,

Hank Sims: listen for-

Scott Hammond: Right

Hank Sims: … for, you know, a car crash or something.

Scott Hammond: Watch the fax machine there.

Hank Sims: Yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Stories are coming in.

Hank Sims: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: My whole idea really is to, was to, like, just, like, set, you know, open source all of that so that everybody basically, you know, all the stuff that's feeding into

Hank Sims: us-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Hank Sims: … uh, is also just, you know, fed out to the public usu- and that's usually s- government sources of information.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. Sure.

Hank Sims: So, you know, we, you know, uh, we have, we scrape lots of

Hank Sims: websites-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Hank Sims: … uh, lots of government websites-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Hank Sims: … um, to bring in, you know, something like, so a power outage. You know, when there's a power outage, it goes up on our site, a big power outage.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Hank Sims: If there's a big earthquake, it goes up on our site.

Scott Hammond: You guys are kind of an emergency sort of go-to something-

Hank Sims: Yeah, we try to be

Scott Hammond: … aggregation, right?

Hank Sims: Yeah, we try to be. Sure.

Scott Hammond: What is that, it has a name, right?

Scott Hammond: I mean-

Hank Sims: Uh, no, I don't know.

Scott Hammond: Like, if there's a disaster w- there's, there's some reporting, there's some current data on the website.

Hank Sims: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, we always, we, yeah, we, we try to do that, uh-

Scott Hammond: Ferndale's flooding. It's really getting, the river's getting up there.

Hank Sims: Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So a lot, and, or if there's, like, a, a, a big sewage spill or-

Scott Hammond: Oh

Hank Sims: … lots of different kinds of things, government information-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Hank Sims: … coming into the website at all-

Scott Hammond: Right

Hank Sims: … at all times.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Hank Sims: Or the agenda for next week's supervisor's meeting or something.

Scott Hammond: Perfect.

Hank Sims: You know?

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: So yeah, we try to just bring in that automatically, and then it makes this easier for us, and then we can take that as sort of like raw material that-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Hank Sims: … is still available to everybody. We can, like, use, you know, it's a tip, uh, where maybe we will write a story on this.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Hank Sims: Or maybe, you know, if we see there's a bad car crash on 101 in the safety

Hank Sims: corridor-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Hank Sims: … maybe we want to follow that and see if it's, you know, if they close the road down. You know, we can write on top of that sort of information-

Scott Hammond: Perfect

Hank Sims: … that's come in. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Yeah. It's, it creates, well, not content for content's sake, but yeah.

Hank Sims: Yeah. It's-

Scott Hammond: Think about it. It might be a whole long story.

Hank Sims: It might, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: It might, yeah. End up being-

Scott Hammond: 16 days of flooding, yeah.

Hank Sims: Y- yeah, or-

Scott Hammond: Whatever we have

Hank Sims: … giant earthquake or-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Hank Sims: … something.

Scott Hammond: Another windstorm.

Hank Sims: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: That's why this weather's been so magical. It's so, it's like-

Hank Sims: It's very nice

Scott Hammond: … we got a little break from all that Fun.

Hank Sims: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, crazy. So, uh, you got elsewhere, which is guys like Nick and I on our podcast-

Hank Sims: Uh-huh

Scott Hammond: … and a variety of other sources, right?

Hank Sims: Uh-huh.

Scott Hammond: Time Standard even.

Hank Sims: Time Standard, sure.

Scott Hammond: I love that. You know, I love the fact that, hey, bring it in.

Hank Sims: Yeah, like, yeah, that's what I said. We wanna be, you know, the, the hub. We wanna be Humboldt County's homepage, you know?

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: Like, if something's happening in Humboldt, you're… Or if you're just bored and wondering what's going on-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Hank Sims: … in Humboldt County today, because a lot of people are want-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Hank Sims: … a lot of people like to know about Humboldt County, who live here.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Who went to jail in Arcata?

Hank Sims: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Okay, that's booked. And so G- what is Gizmos?

Hank Sims: That's just those, the, that's, you know, basically all just sort of like automated features, like, you know, uh, the looking at the California Highway Patrol feed.

Scott Hammond: Oh.

Hank Sims: Or, like, you know, Eureka, Fortuna, Arcata, the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office, their police departments all feed their incidents into this, you know, basically unusable section-

Scott Hammond: Okay

Hank Sims: … of a website somewhere. So we take that and bring it in and make sense of it, a little bit of sense of it.

Scott Hammond: Huh.

Hank Sims: And so you can follow that as it happens.

Scott Hammond: So some people have a lot of time to read.

Hank Sims: Uh-huh. Uh-huh, sure.

Scott Hammond: More than others.

Hank Sims: Or they want to know, or they want to know, like, you know, they see something going

Hank Sims: on-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Hank Sims: … and they wonder what it was, and they know that they'll get, you know, at some information at least f- on the Lost Coast Outpost.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: You can do a search. Is the se- search engine pretty robust?

Hank Sims: No, it's pretty bad actually.

Scott Hammond: Is it really?

Hank Sims: Yeah, the search engine… Yeah, search engine-

Scott Hammond: It's cool that you would admit that.

Hank Sims: Yeah. Search- search engines-

Scott Hammond: We suck on this part

Hank Sims: … search engines are, are, are, are, are a tricky problem for a lot of reasons,

Hank Sims: but-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Hank Sims: … you can, if you know where to click-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Hank Sims: … then you can find-

Scott Hammond: Probably find it.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: What else, what other sections am I missing? News, uh, booked, uh, obits is-

Hank Sims: Yeah. There's the lowdown. There's the, like, calendar-

Scott Hammond: Oh, the lowdown

Hank Sims: … of events.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: You know, so it's like a, a, a ca- you know, stuff going on in town-

Scott Hammond: Uh-huh

Hank Sims: … that you can go to.

Scott Hammond: Is that pretty robust? Is that fed, like, voluntarily, like by Mad River

Scott Hammond: Brewery or-

Hank Sims: Yeah, people put their own events up there, and we sort of-

Scott Hammond: They have, do they have to do it themselves, or do you-

Hank Sims: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … scrape it?

Hank Sims: We ask them to do it themselves, yeah. Then they do. Um, uh, sometimes-

Scott Hammond: It's free advertising

Hank Sims: … sometimes we fill in. Yeah, exactly.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: Um, uh, you know, so there's that. There's other sections like, uh, you know, uh, um, the Humboldt Handy that we launched with the director of, like, contractors-

Scott Hammond: Oh, right

Hank Sims: … and stuff. That's kind of an-

Scott Hammond: I like that

Hank Sims: … that's kind of an advertising feature, but it's-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Hank Sims: … powered by the same kind of, like, uh, you know, uh, data, uh, that, that you find elsewhere.

Scott Hammond: Right. Is that a, is that a paid-for section?

Hank Sims: Uh, well, it's, it's, it, it's a complete list, but you can, a, a, a contractor can pay to have their business-

Scott Hammond: Can stand out

Hank Sims: … promoted.

Scott Hammond: The drywaller guy.

Hank Sims: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or yeah, and post some pictures of their work or something like that, they can do that. We have a classified ads section. We have… I'm trying to think. There's tons-

Scott Hammond: Oh, the classified's pretty affordable.

Hank Sims: Oh, it's very affordable. Dollar a day, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Buck a day?

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Dollar a hauler, what, Nick?

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: So hey, part of our show where we start to have some fun, and you can earn-

Hank Sims: Oh. Oh, oh no.

Scott Hammond: Probably give you one anyway.

Hank Sims: Oh, no.

Scott Hammond: A, uh, black fi- whoa. Let me tip everything over. Hey, I got this together. The Black Fig, Dick Taylor.

Hank Sims: Okay.

Scott Hammond: Madagascar.

Hank Sims: Let's see what I can do.

Scott Hammond: Do you, are you a chocolate guy? Do you like chocolate?

Hank Sims: Hell yeah. Sure.

Scott Hammond: Probably married to somebody that likes chocolate.

Hank Sims: I, I, uh, yeah, all of the above.

Scott Hammond: Hell yeah. Okay, good deal. I'm gonna leave that right there, so you gotta earn this. Here we go.

Hank Sims: Okay. Oh, no.

Scott Hammond: Question number one, Hank Sims for

Scott Hammond: $5 and a Dick Taylor bar. Uh, what do you, what do you like about Humboldt County?

Hank Sims: Well, I like that-

Scott Hammond: Top three takeawa- top three things.

Hank Sims: Top three things. Oh, well, well, I mean, I like the, the, the culture, the people. Uh, uh- … uh, I like, um, the architecture, and I like-

Scott Hammond: Oh

Hank Sims: … the, the natural environment. I like the rain.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: So you're a rain guy.

Hank Sims: Well, not, I, I mean, I won't say that now. Now I'm sick of it to be done, but I like living in a wet place rather than a dry

Hank Sims: place. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: You're probably a sun guy. My son's the same way. He goes, "I, I'm, it's raining in Amsterdam.

Scott Hammond: I love it."

Hank Sims: Uh-huh.

Scott Hammond: It's 32 degrees.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: It's dumping rain for the last eight days- … and he's happy. He goes-

Hank Sims: I don't know if I like the rain, but I like ha- I like it being wet and foresty rather than-

Scott Hammond: And clean

Hank Sims: … doesn't like… Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Okay, question number two.

Hank Sims: Mm.

Scott Hammond: Top three things you don't like about Humboldt.

Hank Sims: Uh, don't li- uh, w-

Scott Hammond: What, what do you not care for?

Hank Sims: Sometimes, I mean, I say the people and the culture, which is a very insular, like, inward-looking culture, but some, the downside of that is maybe the same, just like sort of a, a, a, a insularity, like

Hank Sims: small-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Hank Sims: … mindedness maybe sometimes, a little sort of lack of awareness of what's going

Hank Sims: on-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Hank Sims: … in the outside world.

Scott Hammond: Not in my backyard, baby.

Hank Sims: Uh, uh, yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Wind power? Forget it. That's too clean.

Hank Sims: That's, yeah, well, yeah, so those kind of things. Let's see what else. Uh, uh, uh-

Scott Hammond: Fish farm? No way. That's c- come on, that's gotta be, it's gotta have a carbon footprint.

Hank Sims: I think the things I like are the same as the things I don't like. Isn't that strange? Like-

Scott Hammond: Okay. What's, so what's number two?

Hank Sims: The weather, the rain.

Scott Hammond: The wea- Man of paradox.

Hank Sims: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's true, I, I think, yeah. Uh, and yeah. Uh, what else don't I like? Uh, the, the, the lack of, uh-

Scott Hammond: Natural resources

Hank Sims: … affordable lunches-

Scott Hammond: Ah

Hank Sims: … in downtown Eureka.

Scott Hammond: Oh, well.

Hank Sims: Or cheap. I want it cheaper.

Scott Hammond: I got the hack for you. Can I, can I-

Hank Sims: Yeah, please

Scott Hammond: … give you the tip-off here?

Hank Sims: Please.

Scott Hammond: Don't tell anybody.

Hank Sims: Uh.

Scott Hammond: If we told you, we'll have to kill you.

Hank Sims: Okay.

Scott Hammond: So, um, the salad at Lost Bagels.

Hank Sims: Yeah. Oh, oh, dude. Yes. No, I've been there.

Scott Hammond: It's a big salad.

Hank Sims: And it'd feed, like, four people.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: It's huge.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And you get lari- you get a whole thing of larypen, which-

Hank Sims: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … is worth 10 bucks.

Hank Sims: Yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: And ranch, and s- their tofu t- whatever you want, tahini.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Five bucks.

Hank Sims: Yeah, no, I've done this. It's crazy, yes.

Scott Hammond: I did it yesterday. I had a huge meal. It was delicious.

Hank Sims: Yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, and, and if you're really, there's another way to hack that too, but I can't say that on the air.

Hank Sims: Oh, okay.

Scott Hammond: You're going, "That's making it weird, man." Okay. Um, so third question.

Hank Sims: Mm.

Scott Hammond: You get a full, full-paid day. Patrick's gonna give you the day off with pay, and what's your, what's your itinerary? Who do you do it with, and where do you go?

Hank Sims: Oh, uh, any-

Scott Hammond: Starting, starting at 9:00 AM, where do you go?

Hank Sims: Starting at 9:00 AM, I mean, I mean, I, uh, uh, I mean, I'd probably stay at home and, and read a book.

Hank Sims: Uh-

Scott Hammond: Nice

Hank Sims: … otherwise, uh, uh, maybe, uh, if, if I have to, if you make me go outside somewhere, I like Mauldin Dunes.

Hank Sims: I like, uh-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Hank Sims: … I like hiking Mauldin Dunes.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Try that with the mosquitoes sometime-

Hank Sims: Ooh

Scott Hammond: … in the summer.

Hank Sims: Ooh.

Scott Hammond: It, I mean, it's such a cool place. My wife is a hiker.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And so she's got all the secret spots, Mauldin, you know, 100 others. And, uh, somehow I got Uh, hijacked on Mother's Day-

Hank Sims: Uh-huh

Scott Hammond: … as a-

Hank Sims: Somehow

Scott Hammond: … being a nice husband.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: She's not my mother. Mother to my chil- my nine kids, that's fair, but, um, skaters were awful.

Hank Sims: Oh, yeah?

Scott Hammond: Oh my God.

Hank Sims: I've not, I've not come-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Hank Sims: … across this.

Scott Hammond: But it, it is, it's, it's like you're on another planet, and then you're looking back at the bay and the mountains, and you're going, "Where? This is five minutes from home."

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: 10 minutes.

Hank Sims: Yeah, it's a weird landscape, too. It's a really pretty landscape.

Scott Hammond: It's r- yeah, the dune environment is, uh-

Hank Sims: Dune forest

Scott Hammond: … that biome is, is super cool.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: We like to go up to, um, uh, up by Lar- Larpin. We- I like to go up by Larpin, uh, um, up to, uh, Camel

Scott Hammond: Rock-

Hank Sims: Uh-huh

Scott Hammond: … on Scenic Drive there-

Hank Sims: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … and, uh, park there and picnic. It's just gorgeous.

Hank Sims: Okay. That's nice.

Scott Hammond: Just a magical experience. Okay, bonus question number four, for all the marbles.

Hank Sims: Okay. I know what this is gonna be.

Scott Hammond: This is gonna be a tough- I want… I'm trying to come up with y- your toughest question. I'll, I'll throw you s- I'll lob you a soft ball. Where do you, where do you go for dinner?

Hank Sims: Dinner?

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: Uh, my favorite places for dinner?

Scott Hammond: Yeah, top three.

Hank Sims: T- uh, top three? I like, uh, Larpin.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Hank Sims: Of course. I like Annie's Cambodian.

Scott Hammond: Oh, I haven't ate there for a while.

Hank Sims: Oh, it's good. Um, and let's see.

Hank Sims: Uh, to go out to a nice dinner, like, I like the Sea Girl. I haven't been there in a while, but I like it.

Scott Hammond: Sea Girl's still… It's, apparently it's killer. I haven't eaten there in years.

Hank Sims: Yeah. Yeah, it's good.

Scott Hammond: They used to have the best salad bar maybe in the world.

Hank Sims: Yeah, the world's, uh, done away with salad bars, though. They don't like them.

Scott Hammond: I know.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: I think COVID killed a lot of things-

Hank Sims: Mm

Scott Hammond: … including salad bars.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, doggone it. Um, where's Annie's now? Are they still up on… Are they, are they up on F- Fifth, st- like where they were up by-

Hank Sims: No, they're up, uh, they're in Henderson Center.

Scott Hammond: They moved.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Hank Sims: Nice spot in Henderson Center.

Scott Hammond: There's a lot of good places in Henderson Center.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Diver.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Plus, we ate there. It's decent.

Hank Sims: Yeah. I haven't eaten there in a while, but yeah.

Scott Hammond: Well, hey, congratulations, you have-

Hank Sims: Hey

Scott Hammond: … you're now the recipient of a Dick Taylor-

Hank Sims: I'll take it

Scott Hammond: … chocolate bar.

Hank Sims: Yeah. Thank you.

Scott Hammond: You know what's cool?

Hank Sims: Great choice.

Scott Hammond: The coolest thing that I learned about Dick Taylor, besides I always get a nice chocolate buzz when I drink their chocolate or eat it-

Hank Sims: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … um, is it's low calorie.

Hank Sims: Oh, yeah.

Scott Hammond: I mean, the whole bar is like 100 calories.

Hank Sims: Well, and I remember when-

Scott Hammond: Maybe about 20

Hank Sims: … I remember when, like, like, nice chocolate came into fashion, and people say like, "Oh, you only eat, like, a tiny little corner of it." And I thought-

Scott Hammond: Right

Hank Sims: … "Oh, you're insane." But then- … I realized, no, as- that's all you need is, like, a tiny little corner.

Scott Hammond: You don't wanna sit there and chew it like a Hershey's.

Hank Sims: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And it pairs a lot with a lot of, lot of different drinks and other foods and fruits. It's pretty diverse, and yeah, lucky to have those guys down there.

Hank Sims: Yeah, for sure.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Uh, um, they may have food at one point coming up.

Hank Sims: They do, they do.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: They what? Oh, you're gonna have them here?

Scott Hammond: No, they… Well, I, I interviewed Adam Dick early on, but, uh, they may be having some sort of, uh, uh, food associated with their at some point. Hey, hot flash. You didn't hear it here.

Hank Sims: Oh. Ah.

Scott Hammond: Don't tell anybody. I'd have to kill you.

Hank Sims: Uh-huh.

Scott Hammond: So, uh-

Hank Sims: Nice

Scott Hammond: … yeah, yeah, they're… It's always fun going there and, uh… So any, I don't know, parting shots? It says you're a journalist, editor, mentor. You've inspired a new generation of reporters to pursue truth and integrity in their work.

Hank Sims: This is, this is what you got the AI to generate about me?

Scott Hammond: I, I really like… The AI, I mean, AI loves you.

Hank Sims: It makes… AI-

Scott Hammond: AI lo-

Hank Sims: AI loves everybody when it comes to journals and whatever

Scott Hammond: … it loves… Hey, he's amazing. No. But I kinda get that sense that you're, you've mentored a few of these guys and

Scott Hammond: gals and-

Hank Sims: Sort of, maybe. They mentor me as much as I mentor them.

Hank Sims: Uh-

Scott Hammond: I like that.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: It's, uh, so it should be.

Hank Sims: Maybe, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, it's, it's mutual. It's a mutual men- mentor-mentee.

Hank Sims: Sure.

Scott Hammond: The question is, who's doing what and when?

Hank Sims: Uh-huh.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: No, it's, uh, all the time. Uh, uh, no, I don't, uh, uh, that's, uh, I don't believe any of that stuff that the AI said about me, but, uh.

Scott Hammond: No, I ki- it's kind of flattering.

Hank Sims: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Um, yeah, I, I think the vo- the… I like this vital role of local journalism, fostering an informed and engaged

Scott Hammond: community.

Hank Sims: I mean, that's important to me.

Scott Hammond: It's pretty generic, but it's true.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: It's, I mean, AI's got generic truth.

Hank Sims: It knows how to, it knows how to, knows how to butter you up, yeah.

Scott Hammond: He's amazing. He's, he's a hero, and, uh, he's th- that guy. Um, no, I, I really appreciate you being here. Any other, uh, parting shots, questions, comments? Any, any other comments on where we're going? Where, where would you like to see Humboldt go in the next five, 10 years?

Hank Sims: I mean, I don't, oof, I don't know. I would like, uh, I, I, I don't… Yeah, I don't know. I guess I don't have that much of opinion. I mean, I would like to see it be vibrant and-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Hank Sims: … and continue to flourish.

Hank Sims: Uh, but-

Scott Hammond: What does that mean for you?

Hank Sims: Yeah, well, exactly.

Scott Hammond: Yes.

Hank Sims: That's gonna mean different things for different people.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Hank Sims: But I mean, I guess I would like to see… There seems to be, there's, for a long time there's been… I don't know. There's always been a pall hanging over Humboldt a little

Hank Sims: bit.

Scott Hammond: There's something.

Hank Sims: Something, yeah.

Scott Hammond: A cloud.

Hank Sims: And people, people, uh, the, somebody in the Board of Supervisors meeting said the other day that, like, uh, you know, what does Humboldt have to do to promote itself is it has to, like, get over its sort of, like, its i- insecurity problems. Uh-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Hank Sims: … uh, and I think that that's true.

Hank Sims: People-

Scott Hammond: I like that

Hank Sims: … people always like to… I mean, people always like to bitch about every place they live-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Hank Sims: … anybody, anywhere.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Hank Sims: But, like, we, it seems like people here take it a little bit more seriously-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Hank Sims: … the bitching, and they're really bummed out.

Scott Hammond: It's a little bit more personal.

Hank Sims: And I think they have to… And, and, and there's lots of real challenges in life for lots of, for everybody and for, you know-

Scott Hammond: Anywhere you live

Hank Sims: … some people more than most.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: Yeah, but, but y- y- y- y- you gotta, you gotta, you gotta take-

Scott Hammond: I like that. I, I-

Hank Sims: … it easy

Scott Hammond: … that's a hard truth, but I really like your comment because it's like, "Oh, it's us, and we're ER, and it just sucks."

Hank Sims: Eh.

Scott Hammond: And, uh, and I mean, you know, my parents and, and my cous- And it's like,

Scott Hammond: dude.

Hank Sims: Mm.

Scott Hammond: Get, get over it and, and let's, let's move forward.

Hank Sims: Yeah, sure.

Scott Hammond: You, you're gonna have challenges. I, San Diego or LA fires or, I don't, New

Scott Hammond: York.

Hank Sims: For sure. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: I don't know. Wherever you're living, you're gonna have some crap in your life.

Hank Sims: Yeah, and this is a-

Scott Hammond: That's-

Hank Sims: … a hard place to, you know, this, this is a, it's an expensive place for a lot of people to live.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Hank Sims: There are way more expensive places for people to live.

Hank Sims: Um-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Hank Sims: … you know, and there's cheaper places where you wouldn't want to live maybe.

Scott Hammond: Great point, yeah.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Cost of living's high.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And, um, wages are, are markedly, uh, we could Probably say not the highest in the nation or the state.

Hank Sims: For sure.

Scott Hammond: So there's that.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Um, kind of begs gas pricing, uh, in terms of d- discussion. Do you have any theories on-

Hank Sims: I-

Scott Hammond: … like, why gas might be five bucks-

Hank Sims: People have-

Scott Hammond: … and it's three in Medford?

Hank Sims: Yeah. People have gone th- up and down- … through this all over the-

Scott Hammond: Let me say this, taxes-

Hank Sims: I mean, Medford, Medford is a thing. I mean, taxes and, like, also the, I think the gasoline formulation in different

Hank Sims: states.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Hank Sims: You know, there's rules about that.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: Uh, yeah, I don't know. I'd say-

Scott Hammond: That's funny

Hank Sims: … it's, yeah, I mean, it is, has been something of a monopoly in the

Hank Sims: past.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Hank Sims: And, uh, you know, it's not as much of a monopoly now as far as, like, the supply of gasoline, I think.

Scott Hammond: We still barge it in a lot, right?

Hank Sims: We still barge it in, and I don't know why we have to do that exactly.

Hank Sims: Um-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Hank Sims: … but-

Scott Hammond: Get a lot of it in the bay at one, one fell swoop.

Hank Sims: It is crazy. You get down to, like, you know, when I go visit my mom in Willits and seeing it's a dollar cheaper-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Hank Sims: … in Willits than it is in here, it doesn't make a lot of sense.

Scott Hammond: Hey, before you go, let's talk about Willits real quick.

Hank Sims: Okay. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: What's up, Willits? Hey, um- … question: Has the bypass hurt downtown?

Hank Sims: I don't think so.

Scott Hammond: I haven't been there once since the bypass came in, and I, I really love the bypass.

Hank Sims: Yeah, yeah, the bypass-

Scott Hammond: Don't get me wrong, I don't wanna really… I wanna get to Fresno.

Hank Sims: I mean, the, the, the thing is, yeah, yeah. Um, the thing is, it, uh, it, the bypass came in probably about the same time as the sort of crash of the weed industry.

Scott Hammond: Correct.

Hank Sims: So it's a little bit hard to distinguish one from the other.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Hank Sims: But there's still, uh, like, Willits is pretty lively place still.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Hank Sims: Um, and if you stop, there's really great restaurants to stop at. There's a good place to eat.

Scott Hammond: It's got a lot of shops.

Hank Sims: Got a lot of shops.

Scott Hammond: Is that bakery, Landmark Bakery, is that still there?

Hank Sims: I don't… No, no, it's not.

Scott Hammond: Is that the name of it?

Hank Sims: There's something… Yeah, it was. That's a good memory, but that's been gone for a while I think.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: There's something else there now.

Scott Hammond: That was delicious.

Hank Sims: Yeah, it's great.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, I always like Willits. Got a good vibe.

Hank Sims: It's, it's a cool town. It's like the first town of, like, the north coast, I think-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Hank Sims: … like driving up.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. It had a little bit of history there.

Hank Sims: It's like Garberville, but a little bit bigger.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. And you went to Willits High?

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: With the pool in the front?

Hank Sims: Yes. I was a, I was a Willits Otter myself.

Scott Hammond: An Ot-

Hank Sims: On the-

Scott Hammond: There are the Otters?

Hank Sims: The swim team, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Oh, that's… Oh, did you swim?

Hank Sims: I did. Well, I still know how to swim, but I-

Hank Sims: I sw- I sw-

Scott Hammond: Can you swim?

Hank Sims: Yes.

Scott Hammond: You?

Hank Sims: I, uh, s- but yeah, I did. I was for a while-

Scott Hammond: I float a lot

Hank Sims: … on the swim team. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. I played water polo.

Hank Sims: Oh, really?

Scott Hammond: Oh, man, I was most improved player.

Hank Sims: Hey.

Scott Hammond: Had long hair and all that and a bag of chips and, and, and then later, what

Scott Hammond: happened?

Hank Sims: Uh-huh.

Scott Hammond: You know?

Hank Sims: I don't know.

Scott Hammond: Life.

Hank Sims: It happens to us all, Scott.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Life, kids, drugs, the whole thing.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: It, it all happened. Well, Hank, uh, really honored to have you and appreciate your, your kindness to be here and, um, um, I'm gonna do my, uh, sign-up. Before I do that, uh, parting shots, how do we find Loco, just generally speaking?

Hank Sims: Lostcoastoutpost.com, baby.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Hank Sims: Just type it right into your search.

Hank Sims: Go-

Scott Hammond: Okay

Hank Sims: … go to Google. Go to your browser. Pull up google.com.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Hank Sims: Type in Lost Coast Outpost, hit Enter.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Hank Sims: And then click on the first thing that comes up. That's gonna be it.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And that'll get you, and then just favorite that thing.

Hank Sims: Favorite it.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: Bookmark it. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, and read it once in a while.

Hank Sims: Follow it.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Hank Sims: Read it. Yes.

Scott Hammond: Utilize the advertisers.

Hank Sims: Utilize… Uh, for sure.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Hank Sims: Spend lots of money.

Scott Hammond: Would l- Why not? Would Loco, uh, be findable there? I mean, if you typed in Loco, uh, you'd probably come up with-

Hank Sims: There's probably a billion things there

Scott Hammond: … another th-

Hank Sims: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … another thing.

Hank Sims: Yes, probably.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. I gotcha. Well, thanks for being here. I appreciate you.

Hank Sims: It's a pleasure. Thank you, Scott.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Thank you. Hey, I'm closing the show. Thanks, everybody, for being here. And, uh, Scott Hammond, 100% Humboldt. Super easy to find us and subscribe to us. Uh, kind of similar way.

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Uh, and we're gonna optimize that baby up a little bit 'cause the, the s- 100%, the number with the percent sign-

Hank Sims: Mm

Scott Hammond: … and Humboldt-

Hank Sims: Mm

Scott Hammond: … a little tough to search, but we're getting better.

Hank Sims: This is… You can do it. People-

Scott Hammond: It's on YouTube. It's on, uh, p- all the podcast platforms, and, uh, repost, uh, share, subscribe, make some nice comments, you trolls. And, uh, uh, thanks to, uh, everybody that backs our play here. Scott Hammond, State Farm. Oops. 100% Humboldt. I've never said that.

Scott Hammond: Wow. Can you edit that?

Hank Sims: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Um, signing off. Have a great day. Thanks again, Hank.

Hank Sims: You too, Scott. Thank you.