DAMMIT, AP...

Our final edition floor time was 12:35. Needed one of those early quoteless sidebars to fill second baseball page.

At 12:30, I call New York and ask how soon we'd see one. The guy told me five minutes, I'd have it in hand.

At 12:42, I put in some early story and unloaded.

I STILL don't see a damn sidebar.

 

They've spit the bit often in this series.

 

HE ...

Agh, I'm going soft. I can't do it.

 

12:30? 12:30? when is that? about 90 minutes later than we're ever allowed to be off the floor. Sometimes, it's even 10. I'd kill for midnight off the floor.

 

Finally got a sidebar. But it was too late, the inside page was done.

 

Appreciated ... in my state of disgust, I couldn't have taken it well.

 

Well it's a good thing so many papers are still working on the old press deadlines. You know, there's a cornucopia of Americans out there (maybe canadians, too) that need that newsprint to wrap up their dishes while packing up for the big move.

 

We used to have deadlines of 1130, 12 and 1. Now due to having another paper print (and paginate) the paper (shared production to save money) our final deadline is 11 (we were allowed to move it back later during the World Series).

 

I have a good friend in Albany, NY, and I visit maybe every third weekend.

I like the Albany Times-Union a lot. Good paper in general. Strong local sports section.

But (and I assume it's because they put out a huge Saturday paper complete with all the Sunday stuffs), their Friday night deadline is ridiculously early (at least for the area I get the paper in), that all they have on Friday night football (playoffs this week in fact) are photos and bare scores.

It's frustrating because I read these great advances on Friday night, but cannot read the gamers.

 

You are assuming that pressmen and mailroom personnel could actually do their jobs and not be crackheads that often miss work, are arrested or quit.

 

In 1983, I was a one-man sports desk, working with composing room guys, everything paste-up. Our final edition was 1:45 a.m.

Today, we are a five-man desk, fully paginated, pages go directly to the RIP from our fingers. Our final edition is 12:35 a.m.

And sadly, I even know the reason for it.