How do I end a tradition?

Small-shop guy here. I don't like them, but I run them. Why? Because they make people happy. If anything, it usually cuts into pro sports wire coverage.

At my old shop, we had one day of the week that we ran everything of this ilk. Some weeks there was a ton, others a little.

 

YES! I agree... And they have a place at bigger papers too, though maybe a lot more selective -- "Rec Team of the Week" or "Focus on Recreation: This week the Podunk Pirates, all-star state champions" ...

for goodness sakes, don't give folks yet more reasons to move away from newspapers...

 

If you're a small/community shop, run them.

Just spread them out over time, first-come, first-served, and let them know that you'll eventually get to them, but they don't have the right to dictate when they run.

I used to designate one day a week for such photos -- one where we usually had an abundance of space and not much news (Tuesday seemed to be a good day). Packaged them with the Little League results, the local bowling league results, a calendar of participatory sports/youth camps and more. We'd run 3-4 photos in a shot, and it would look like we were really covering community sports, when in reality I was creating a space-filler on a slow news day. It turned out to be a really good compromise.

However, NEVER EVER EVER use your staff to shoot such photos.

The moment you put a staff-credited stick-and-shoot team photo in your paper, everyone will want you to shoot them. Same goes for college signings. I'll run them if you take them and submit them, but we won't shoot them. I'd walk away without shooting the stick-and-shoot team photo, usually claiming I was out of film (when I had a film camera, that was a lot easier). I usually was out of film, too.

 

I took a team picture as a favor for a friend a couple of weeks ago. It went in the paper as a submitted photo (I submitted it, damnit). No way am I setting precedent in print.