Complaint calls

of course you won't change their mind. they are calling becuase they like to bitch. you just tell them how it is, and if they don't like it, nothing you can do about it. they'll still buy the paper to see how much you continue to disrespect their school/team/kid anyway. fuck em.

 

Phenomenal!

 

Awesome. I enjoyed reading through those.

I noticed people brought up JV coverage a lot. One thing I did during football season was interview the JV and Freshman coach and then write a feature over the JV team. I never ever heard a complaint about JV or a demand for more JV coverage.

 

Precisely. The problem? Parents and relatives don't deal with rational thought well most of the time.

 

It comes down to this:

* If it's a logic issue, talk to them, and listen to their beef, then explain the problem from your perspective, and thank them for reading and take the time to call.

* If it's an emotion issue, just listen, then thank them and go on your way. You can't do shit about what they're feeling.

 

there's a lotta "feelers" out there.

be careful.

 

Wait until next year when you don't do the JV story.

That slope you're on? It's slippery.

 

I was once told to incorporate the JV scores into my gamers. I told the publisher to shove the JV scores up his smelly goat ass (figuratively, of course). I put them at the bottom of the agate, where they belong, instead. Unless something extraordinary was going on, I'd never pen a JV story.

 

I get the "This JV/freshman/middle school team is having a great year. Their last game is today. Why don't you cover it?" call about once a season.
The problem is that it's all I can do just to cover all the different varsity teams (between four high schools, 47 different varsity teams playing in the winter alone) and I have to draw the line somewhere.
First, it's a subvarsity team that's undefeated. Then it's a subvarsity team that posted a winning record for the first time in a while. Then it's one that won its first game in a year or two. Once the camel gets its nose in the tent...

 

No, I think every call or e-mail deserves some kind of response.

Maybe it's a rote response, of course, something you write once and then paste a lot: "Thank you for your interest, yada yada."

 

"I'm sorry. Our budget has been cut recently, and we're not able to staff events of that nature. Sorry."

That might work. Or be honest (depending on how many schools are in your area): "If we do that for this school, we'll have to do it for every other one, too, and we simply don't have the time or personnel to do that."

 

Encourage them to e-mail rather than phone. If they get you on the phone, they'll keep you there, saying the same things over and over and never hearing what you say. Next thing you know, it's 30 minutes shot in the ass, plus it's more likely they'll piss you off and goad you into saying something regrettable.

If the e-mail is civil and reasonable, respond in kind. If it's irrational, send them a generic response that says nothing: "Thank you for writing. I'm always interested in getting feedback from readers."