how do i make a veteran meet deadline without being a jerk?

I know a certain paper where the writers all file late on live or feature stuff so that they get only cursory editing.

 

I know of places where the beat writers file about five minutes before deadline on events (including 1 p.m. NFL starts) because they're paranoid about the stories being posted on the web early (the paper has an Internet guy who covers the team) because they are worried about the competition picking up on things from their stories.

 

Good job. One other thing, I strongly urge you to keep what you are doing with this individual between you and him. Record what your are doing to protect yourself. Finally, there is no need to get others involved at this point. More hands in this situation messes things up very quickly. Good luck.

 

One thing that's bad from a writer's standpoint is when the SE and people on the desk can't agree on when the deadline is. Or when it differs every Friday night. I think it's also bad to "trick" a writer and give him an earlier deadline than is actually needed. Then you get a rushed story that probably isn't very good. This is a little bit off the point, but in some instances I have been told an all-area deadline was a week earlier than it actually ran. From the SE's standpoint, the team is done ahead of time ... but from my standpoint I have to kill myself to get it done early (probably working unpaid overtime) and the team isn't as thorough, because once again it's rushed.
As for the veteran who can't get football gamers done on time ... sit down with him privately, away from the sports dept., and hash it out. Make sure he has a dependable and quick stat-keeping method. Then if he can't make deadline, give him all day games or put him on the desk.

 

bottom line? hit deadline and keep your job.

 

Ordinarily, Tom provides a smart-assed answer that will rub people the wrong way. However this time, he put the situation as it is. Great answer and good advice.

 

I worked at a place where one Friday prep football night the News Editor told us our deadlines for off the floor. We busted ass and just missed by a couple of minutes. I went up to him and said, sorry, we had a couple of problem, late games, but we just missed by less than five minutes. We did all we could.
He said, "Oh, no problem. Our deadlines are actually later than I told you, but I didn't think you guys could make it, so I told you an earlier time."
He came very near to having my fist buried in his grille. But I stepped back and told him in a very loud voice, "That was absolute bullshit. I resent being treated like children. Tell us the fucking deadlines, the real fucking deadlines, and we will do everything in our power to hit them."
He had no response. Just kinda mumbled "OK" and walked away.

 

That was dumb of the editor -- he never should have admitted it.

 

You proved the editor's point by missing deadline.

 

From a desker's standpoint, I'll say that if you're not turning in your all-area stuff at least a week before it runs, we're going to have some serious problems. All that copy has to be edited, organized, formatted and each element has to be individually laid out on the page before it goes to print (which is often an early run, not a live publish.) And if a short-staffed desk doesn't have the manpower to devote a separate shift to designing the all-area pages, they're doing it after deadline, which is even more of a reason to get it in early.

For spring sports, when you've got an all-area team in a different sport running every week and sometimes a different writer compiling each team ... that's a shitload of work for the editors/deskers who don't get the same luxury. Can't all be turning in their copy a day before it runs.

 

so, you're on to me, eh?

 

Blind squirrel, acorn. Acorn, blind squirrel.