How far before hotel?

I disagree, it kind of is my loss. I want to get the best story I can at all times, and if I don't, I feel like I'm not doing my job. Of course, there are other reasons for choosing to drive nine hours in a day. Last year, when we went up to Iowa State from Missouri, I refused to get a hotel because I had to get to church the next morning. I told the other reporters that we weren't stopping, no matter what.

We got back at 4 a.m. from Ames, allowing me to make it to church at 10 a.m. Never regretted that decision at all. If I have to drive nine hours a day for a game, I'll do it.

 

Your readers don't give a shit about you. If they did, more of them would pay to read your stuff.

As a reader, I love your attitude, I really do. As a manager, I'd be taking advantage of it.

You stay, the paper pays. It's that simple. That's a Cost of Doing Business. And anything that involves a work+travel day that is, start to finish, more than 12 hours, merits a night in a hotel. Anything else is unsafe. One night in a Motel 6 or a Red Roof isn't going to compromise shareholder value.

 

Eh, again, I disagree. You're doing your job the best you can with the tools given you. If they expect you to travel on your own dime, what's next? No mileage? Pay for your own meals? It's a dangerous, slippery slope that I'm not willing to go down at this point in my career.

I felt much differently when I was 22-23, was working at a 10K and wanted to pile up clips going to the pro sporting events two hours down the road. That's a different situation, and the paper pretty much said, you go on your own dime or you don't go at all.

If the company says, "no, we're not paying for the trip," then I say, "fine, I'm not going."

I'm not disagreeing that it compromises your beat. It does. But that's the paper's problem, not yours. These newspaper companies will stab you in the back at any opportunity. Don't for a second forget that. Do not go out of your way at personal cost because "the readers deserve better."

 

Cosmo is da man.

 

It still is my problem, though. Compromising my beat is certainly my problem, and it's one I want to help solve if there's any way I can. I'm not at the point where I can say otherwise, and I hope I never get there. I hope this beat is always this important to me. If I can say it's not my problem, then it's probably time for me to find another field of work.

 

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one, Night. I certainly appreciate your passion. Too bad the company I work for has sucked mine right out of me.

 

I know where he's coming from. I used to be young and naive, too.

 

I expected the starfish-scrunchers to come out of the woodwork ripping me for getting a room.

 

Amen. Just read the reader comments. Anonymous readers hate your guts and will tell you so on every story written in this neck of the woods.

 

I would say anything that would have the reporter returning home after midnight should at least warrant conversation of a hotel stay. I'm still boggled when papers shell out mileage money for a 3-4 hour round trip covering a three-day state tournament, rather than just posting a reporter in town for a couple overnights. The drive time saved could be used to flush out an additional story/column and the money saved would pay for a decent hotel room.

That's my two cents, anyway