Another run-in with an AAU baseball coach

The feud that I've had with an AAU baseball coach over his tryout notices continues. Over the weekend, he e-mailed me his tryout notice and asked for it to be placed in the sports notebook in several different weeklies. He also asked for the numbers of other sports editors. He noted in the e-mail that the times when I didn't publish the notice, the tryouts didn't attract many players.
I replied that I'd do what I could, but couldn't make any promises. If he needed a guarantee that something would be published it was best that he bought an ad and I gave him an ad rep's number.
He replied, asking why I would not publish his notice.
Funny, I don't remember telling him that. I guess for someone who works in the communication business I'm not very good at getting my point across.
I didn't say I wouldn't publish it, just that I couldn't promise I would. Seems reasonable. Seems honest. I can't guarantee that it can be published because I may not have enough room or perhaps I may just forget to include it (I know that's unprofessional, but with dozens of things that have to get into the paper each week, it does happen).
When it comes to getting free advertising, this guy doesn't fuck around. One week last fall I forgot to include his notice and he called my supervisor. It was the same week when two teams won state championships and the week before the Thanksgiving Day football games, yet somehow squeezing a freebie into the paper was supposed to be a priorty?
He also doesn't understand why local Little League tryout notices should get priority over his notice.
I know there are some things in this world that I may not want to take seriously but I have to take them seriously. Why should I have to take this guy's notice as seriously as a paid ad?

 

Go talk to your supervisor and explain, "This guy wants free notices instead of paying for ads."

That'll be the end of that.

 

His tryouts try hard too.

 

Why not create a sports calendar that you can slap on agate once a week?

Put all the tryouts, softball tournaments, etc. on it.

 

What's so hard about putting a tryout announcement in the paper?

Inky's idea is the way to go. Places I worked had a section that could be run whenever needed that we filled up with notices like that.

 

That seems like what he's been doing, but he can't always get the space to be able to run it that one day a week.

That's where the coach appears to have the issue: he wants it in there every day.

 

Huh? The paper's a weekly.

 

Use the word "policy." As in "It's our policy to run tryout announcements once per week." Tell every coach that and stick to it.

 

True, nobody can argue with the word "policy," because as soon as you say "It's our policy," they realize they're arguing with someone who is powerless to change anything.

 

I never promise that something will be in the paper. Because even if you fully intend for it to be, you never know what's going to happen.

It's bad karma. If you promise someone that something will be in the paper, you'll have a tornado or a press breakdown or a typo on the item.

 

I wish that was true.

We have two ASA organizations in town. One buys ads to promote its tryouts, the other wants us to bend our policy (one appearance in the sports briefs and then it goes into the weekly calendar) to run a free brief every day for the week before.

My philosophy on these organizations is this _ we're not bending our policy for you. You've got enough money to travel around the Midwest playing in tournaments every weekend, you've got enough money to buy an ad.

 

Maybe you could suggest the coach has a car was to raise the money for the ads.