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How will sports writers establish an alibi?

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by inthesuburbs, Nov 12, 2016.

  1. HanSenSE

    HanSenSE Well-Known Member

    Spartan Squad bought up an important point a few posts back: Deadline. We all know they're getting earlier and earlier. Hate to neglect quality just to hit it, but some nights ya have to.
     
    inthesuburbs likes this.
  2. MNgremlin

    MNgremlin Active Member

    Then what if in the next game you didn't staff, Player X scores 101 points to set an NBA record? Now, your shop looks like a joke for not having the beat reporter at the game covering his beat. Any routine game can very easily turn into a game that's not routine. That's the beauty of sports!
     
    inthesuburbs likes this.
  3. Jake_Taylor

    Jake_Taylor Well-Known Member

    Of course the counter argument to that is hardly anybody staffed Wilt's 100 point game (it might have just been an AP stringer if I remember right) and everybody survived.
     
  4. HanSenSE

    HanSenSE Well-Known Member

    At the risk of threadjack, IIRC wasn't it the Warriors' PR guy sending it out to the Philly papers as well as all the wire services (UPI was still a player in the 60s)?
     
  5. MNgremlin

    MNgremlin Active Member

    In that case, why staff anything?
     
  6. Jake_Taylor

    Jake_Taylor Well-Known Member

    I gave reasons above. I was just pointing out that a scoring record might not be the best example.

    It's a balance everybody is trying to find these days. Obviously staffing every event is great, but not economically feasible for a lot of outlets anymore.

    As to the original post, there are lots of good gamers being written every day. Read the KC Star, for example.
     
    inthesuburbs likes this.
  7. Old Time Hockey

    Old Time Hockey Active Member

    I would also point out that often as a beat writer, you're not just writing the gamer. There's a notebook, blogging, sometimes a followup if there are deadline issues. So sometimes, that color goes into another element. (And sometimes, the gamer suffers because of the 15 other things you're doing.)

    I would also second what Jake said: Being there all the time matters. In my relatively brief stint as a full-fledged baseball beat guy (before we stopped traveling), the time on the road was incredibly valuable. For one thing, it registered with the players that I was there every day, just like they were, and they opened up a bit more. And the road clubhouse was always less crowded than the one at home, which made it a lot easier to do a good interview (or just have a conversation.)
     
    inthesuburbs likes this.
  8. HanSenSE

    HanSenSE Well-Known Member

    One baseball writer I know of who has posted here in the past, but I will not out, says he usually has two gamers going, to be sent within minutes of the final out: one the Hometown Heroes win angle, the other the Hometown Heroes lose. So add that to the mix.
     
  9. Old Time Hockey

    Old Time Hockey Active Member

    I did that a lot more with the NBA, but yeah, sometimes with baseball. And with 10 p.m. first-edition deadlines, there may have been a time or two when I sent both BEFORE the final out, then told the desk which one to use.
     
  10. HanSenSE

    HanSenSE Well-Known Member

    About all you can do in the Twitter age. When I was covering high school football this fall, the paper had a 10 p.m. print deadline, so I'd have something ready to send at the gun, then do a writethru for the web with quotes, more color, etc. Thank goodness the spread offense hasn't taken hold here.
     
  11. Jake_Taylor

    Jake_Taylor Well-Known Member

  12. LanceyHoward

    LanceyHoward Well-Known Member

    I am a graduate of the University of Colorado. Normally the Post staffs the road football games of CSU and CU with one person. Would a paper be better off having someone write the game stories off the television back at the office and have the beat writer focus on sidebars, etc?
     
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