Former Idaho Statesman editor John Costa dies. He spent decades as a newspaper leader
Former Idaho Statesman editor John Costa died Tuesday at age 76.
Costa retired in 2019 as publisher of The Bulletin in Bend, Oregon, where he started as editor-in-chief in 1997. He was the Idaho Statesman’s top editor from 1993 to 1997.
Costa died of a heart attack, The Bulletin reported. He was living in Richmond, Virginia.
The same person who hired him to lead the Idaho Statesman also hired him in Bend: Gordon Black, who was the Statesman’s publisher before becoming president of Bulletin owner Western Communications.
Costa previously spent 20 years at the St. Petersburg (Florida) Times, where he led a team that won a Pulitzer Prize for local reporting in 1985.
“He had hard news in his blood,” Black told The Bulletin. “He was very professional at every level, but at the same time very personable.”
Costa was credited with transforming the Idaho Statesman’s news operation in the mid-1990s. Longtime Statesman reporter and columnist Rocky Barker wrote about Costa’s impact in a story chronicling the newspaper’s history for its 150th anniversary in 2014.
Costa’s emphasis on investigative reporting and other ambitious projects became part of the newsroom’s DNA, Barker wrote.
“The Idaho Statesman began running investigative stories on auto airbag safety, early childhood education, immunization and workers’ compensation for farmworkers. It also looked at the demise of major employers, such as Morrison-Knudsen, the global construction and engineering company born in Boise,” Barker wrote.
That story quoted former Statesman reporter Jim Hopkins.
“Costa’s approach to producing great journalism was simple: Take the best stories, assign them to the newsroom’s most talented people, then get out of the way and let them do their jobs,” Hopkins wrote. “He believed readers would remember big, impactful stories long after they’d forgotten the routine stuff we produce daily.”
This story was originally published March 31, 2021 at 9:11 AM.