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Explain this to me like I'm a 5-year-old

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by SF_Express, Oct 10, 2010.

  1. reformedhack

    reformedhack Well-Known Member

    You'll have to name names, because the biggest metro in Florida has complete coverage.
     
  2. WriteThinking

    WriteThinking Well-Known Member

    The thing to be afraid of with these things, which are essentially teasers, only, slightly longer than that, is this: Those first few sentences on the front may end up being quite enough for readers with headline-length attention spans and a steadfast devotion to text-length "communication" and "news."

    They may never be induced to go to the inside page at all, wiping out any status/importance that the columnist may otherwise lend to that page/section.

    Given this, it might be better to simply stop with the teasers and just relocate the columnists' stuff wherever wanted/needed, and have readers, hopefully, follow.
     
  3. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    Also depends on whether you picked up a first or final edition.

    If any paper actually did have "complete" (stats and quotes) coverage from a game that ended after 11:30, then congrats to them.

    At least somebody is still trying.
     
  4. Sam Mills 51

    Sam Mills 51 Well-Known Member

    More weak attempts to reinvent the wheel. Of course, those of us who carry this viewpoints will be seen as refusing to change.

    But in the days of shrinking newshole, why is ANYONE wasting any morsel of it?
     
  5. JackReacher

    JackReacher Well-Known Member

    Manpower. That's why.
     
  6. SF_Express

    SF_Express Active Member

    I don't want anybody else to lose their job, so this is just a philosophical point, not a practical one.

    If doing dumb shit like this is the where newspapers are headed because of resource issues, maybe they should just pack it in.

    Today's Sun-Sentinel also had a business advice package on page 2 of the business section, and they had one blurb about credit card debt on the top left of this major display package -- and the same blurb, word for word, right below it.
     
  7. Sam Mills 51

    Sam Mills 51 Well-Known Member

    Sorry, Ryan. Sounds like a lethal combination of laziness and a place which really thinks that jumps aren't read because all readers are too lazy to turn the page.

    If a column is worth reading, turning the page won't be an issue. Books aren't written on one page for a reader's convenience, so why are newspapers subjected to the "no jump" foolishness?
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 1, 2015
  8. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    Sorry, but it really is manpower. Has nothing to do with "no jump" policy because other stories on the fronts do jump.

    It's simple: If paper A and paper B are sharing a page with a columnist on it, that columnist can't be a jump because the papers' front pages are different. In the case of the two papers in question, FLL did not have to read (or design) three UF stories and four UM stories. And ORL did not have to read (or design) three UM stories.

    That's 3 pages and 10 stories worth of work that did not have to be duplicated by a staff that had no one available to do the work anyway.
     
  9. Schottey

    Schottey Guest

    GO ASK YOUR MOTHER!
     
  10. trifectarich

    trifectarich Well-Known Member

    Sorry . . . Orlando.
     
  11. reformedhack

    reformedhack Well-Known Member

    Hmmm. I've gotta figure they at least had something in their final edition. I remember that their state edition used to close at 10 or 10:30, so that obviously needed filler. But if they didn't get something in the paper, either in later editions or by chasing the last run, then, yeah, that's sort of lame.

    Where did you get your copy of the paper, geographically speaking?
     
  12. SportsDude

    SportsDude Active Member

    We have a "no jump" policy and we have the same exact issues. Two or three grafs on the front, then a big glaring box with "rest of story here" or something. The philosopher kings running the paper believe most readers don't like jumps, and just want the gist.
     
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