What
exactly is the Hoosier Gazette? Answers to your questions about the site
by Josh Whicker, Editor
November 21, 2004
Due to recent attention we
have received by the mainstream media, we have been getting many e-mails from
readers wanting to know more about The Hoosier Gazette. Here are some of the
most asked questions and our answers:
What
exactly is The Hoosier Gazette?
A post from a reader I
found on a basketball forum back in February pretty much sums it up:
“I don’t know what
in the world the site is about. It seems to have some legit news mixed with
crap, mixed with commentary, mixed with God knows what.”
Most of our stories are
satire—either completely made up or about a real news story that we may twist
around with a few added elements of humor and commentary.
We do post real news
stories from small-town newspapers around the state once in a while if they are
really absurd and we can’t believe a real newspaper would print something like
that. If we do post a story like this, we always cite our source.
How
many people are employed by The Hoosier Gazette?
We have a staff of two:
me, who does just about all of the writing, and our webmaster, Chris Kasinger.
I write most of the material for the site and e-mail it to Chris, who puts in on
the web. I handle the public relations for the site and Chris is the business
manager. We are both 1994 Evansville Reitz graduates and have been friends
since middle school.
Once in a while John
Andrews, another 1994 Reitz grad, will write a story for the site. Some of his
classics:
If you would like to
provide feedback to John about any of these stories, e-mail him at
jandrews88@hotmail.com.
What
is the purpose of The Hoosier Gazette?
Our only purpose is to
have fun and make people laugh. Sometimes we make sensitive people very angry,
which to me is an added bonus! What really makes me laugh is when someone gets
so infuriated about an article that they sit down and write a hate letter to us
that probably took them more time to write than it did for me to write the story
they are angry about. Hahaha! It makes me crack up just thinking about it!
How
did you come up with the idea for the site?
I enjoy writing and wanted
to create a humor/satire site, but wanted it to be different from others out
there. I did some research, and couldn’t find a humor news site about just one
state, so I called up Chris and asked him if he wanted to put something together
since he enjoys working with computers and the Internet. We developed the idea
for the site over a couple of months before launching it on November 9, 2003.
How
much time do you spend working on the site each week?
I spend about three or
four hours a week writing material for the site. Chris spends about an hour and
a half updating the site.
How
much does it cost to run The Hoosier Gazette?
Eleven dollars a month for
web space.
Do
you make a lot of money off of the site?
NO. We do have ads on the
site through an affiliate company, but we don’t make much money—enough to pay
for the site and maybe a dinner out or some t-shirts now and then. We just
recently started selling merchandise through Café Press but have it priced at
cost so we make nothing off of it—we would rather have people wear it for the
advertising. We have been too lazy to hustle and sell advertising ourselves,
but if you would like to advertise on our site, e-mail Chris at
webmaster@hoosiergazette.com. We can probably work something out.
How
do your stories get into the mainstream media and become hoaxes?
Every story that has
become an international hoax (four in the last eleven months) got its start on
Fark.com, a clearinghouse for strange and funny news stories from around the
world. Each day, around 3,000 stories are submitted to Fark, and between 30-50
are picked for their home page. Now and then, one of ours gets picked.
Most of the stories posted
by Fark are real, so people assume our stories are real also. Media people
looking for a good story see our outlandish headline end up using our story if
they do not check out the rest of our site and see that it is mostly satire.
(reported as real by the
San Diego Union-Tribune, Jim Rome’s radio show)
Man wins Hoosier Lotto
jackpot two days after divorce from cheating wife finalized
(reported as real by
newspapers in Europe, Asia, and Africa)
Indiana University
study: having children significantly lowers parents’ IQs
(reported as real by Fox
News Channel, Keith Olbermann’s Countdown, newspapers in Europe and Asia)
Hostettler mounting
campaign to change the name of Interstate 69
(reported as real by the
Sierra Times, Wonkette.com, MichaelMoore.com, news sites in Europe. Also
reported as a hoax by the Congressional newspaper Roll Call)
I also wrote another story
that was reported by 96STO’s Booker & Diane (Evansville, Indiana) as real that got a lot of
people upset:
At the time of this
writing, we have had approximately 950,000 hits from over 120 countries.
How
can we tell your real stories from fake?
Always be skeptical of
what you read, whether it is from The Hoosier Gazette or any other “real” news
source. When in doubt, do what our disclaimer says, and “suspend belief for the
sake of enjoyment.”
How
often do you update The Hoosier Gazette?
At least once a week,
usually on Sunday afternoon. Sometimes more often if an important event happens
we want to run a feature on.
Where do you get your story ideas?
From a variety of
sources. Some event that I witnessed 15 years ago might trigger a story (the
Jason Smith/Purdue story for example). One little thing I read or hear might
make me think of a story. A lot of the best ones come from conversations I have
with close friends—we tend to discuss some weird stuff. Ideas are constantly
running through my head. If they are good, I write them down because I could
forget it as fast as I thought it up. At the end the week, I go over my ideas
and pick the three best for the next week’s stories.
Who
are your favorite writers/comedians?
My favorite comedian is
George Carlin. My favorite humorist is Dave Barry. I don’t watch or read a lot
of other comedy. I like humor that is smart and irreverent.
What
is your favorite story you have written?
Center for Disease Control
declares Indiana nation’s fattest state
This was my very first
story and was picked up by Fark. It ran on CNN’s TV news ticker until someone
must have actually read the article.
Do
you do any other writing?
Not at the moment,
although I have been thinking of shopping around the idea for a humor column to
a newspaper or magazine. I also have a couple of screenplay ideas I would like
to develop when I get the time.
What
are your future plans for The Hoosier Gazette?
We plan on doing the site
as long as it is fun. People have asked us several times if we have plans of
starting a print edition and adding new writers; we don’t at this time. This
could change if the site continues to gain popularity and we feel it would be
viable for us to expand.
