Double duty (Covering event for one paper and stringing same event for another)

But the best is when papers just want a box score for $10 or so. All you do is take that bad boy from the bottom of your story, send it in an e-mail and wait for the check.

 

Several times a year for a former employer when their teams drift into our coverage area.

Of course, I'm using the byline "Ernie T. Bass, Special to The Bumblefuck Gazette."

 

John's former boss got many of his out-of-town stories that way.

 

I did it plenty of times. The only rule is that we couldn't freelance for any publications that competed with us for ad dollars.

 

A piece of knowledge learned the hard way: Newspapers low-ball in these situations.

Even though the Out-of-Town Bugle is sliding you extra money to cover a game or an event you'll be at, anyway, the Bugle is saving a lot more money -- a lot more -- by not sending a staffer, paying expenses, etc. Before I'd take a double-dip gig, I'd ask the Bugle what the full freelance rate is. They still save money.

You have a lot more room to negotiate than you think, and I wouldn't settle for being paid for an hour of your time to file an extra game story. You should get paid for the full day.

 

As I have found out in the last 4-5 months, quite frequently. I am going through this problem right now. So long as I don't give all places the same exact story, I should be fine.

 

I've actually had a situation where I covered a game for an out-of-town team and then was called by my paper and told, "Hey, you're going to be there anyway, right? So-and-so can't do it, how about you do it for us as well?"

That was a little funny, especially because I didn't plan on it. But yeah, I've done it plenty of times and walked away 95% of the time thinking I did a good job on both.

 

Re: Double duty (Covering event for one paper and stringing same event for anoth

I haven't done it and I'd have some real concerns over doing so.

 

There have been a couple times when I've agreed to do it and then regretted it later, but I've done it a zillion times, most of which were set up by my boss.

Early in my career, I strung a college baseball game for three papers in the same region. I'm not sure I would call them competitors though. The big paper in the region called me and I said yes, and then my boss called me and asked me to do it for another paper and when I told him I was doing it for Paper No. 1, he called them back and said, "They don't care..." then another smaller paper called because they had a local kid in the game and needed a short story centered around that kid.

It was probably an extra three hours work since I was covering it for my paper already and I made an extra $300...

 

A lot of times we wind up doing it as a favor to our bosses, who are doing a favor to a friend at another paper.

I've been asked to do it on some night games and I've told my boss, "I don't have time to write separate stories." and I've been told just to localize the first few graphs and then send the rest to the other paper. I usually do more than that, but in situations like that, they know what they're getting and they're grateful enough that they're not usually that picky...

 

Re: Double duty (Covering event for one paper and stringing same event for anoth

I'm in a similar situation: I work full time at a twice-a-week paper and part time at a daily in a neighboring town (non-competitors; oddly enough, the daily handles the printing duties of the twice-a-week paper, so there is a good working relationship).
Since six of the eight schools I cover at the twice-a-week paper are also covered by the daily, coaches are quite used to seeing me at their games. It works out well for both papers. However, the money isn't as great as you might think — I'm salary at the full-time paper, so there's no extra money from them, but I get paid by the part-time paper for everything I cover.
As for mileage and expenses (food, hotel rooms, etc.), I charge the paper which originally sends me to the event.
Oh, though many of the quotes are naturally the same, the stories differ from each other.

 

I've done this several times in my past life, most notably on a minor-league game when the Seattle Mariners were playing their high-A affiliate in our city. Did a sidebar for us on the atmosphere and a piece for Tacoma on Randy Johnson, who pitched the first four innings.

It's actually not as hard as it seems to double-dip: change a few things around, perhaps localize one a bit more, then push send. Mizzou's right in that they're usually not that picky about what you send them.