How Small Are Your News Holes?

I'm writing a game-day football advance and I've got about 450 words to play with. That's it.

Our paper is still broadsheet, but it's small (I forget the size, but we shrunk a few months ago).

I have three sources in the story. I've run one quote from each. That's it. I have no room. I

write this size story all the time due to the lack of space and I feel like:
1) I'm not giving our reader anything and
2) I've forgotten how to write something in depth and insightful.

Anyone else have these problems or feelings?

I guess on a positive note my blog is taking off. Lots of hits, lots of feedback, etc. And I use it to complement my print work all the time. But even then, it still doesn't seem right.

 

I think the advances at my old paper were supposed to top out at 14 inches. WE were told never to write anything over 14 inches without prior knowledge.

Yet, there were never any repercussions for the people who instead budgeted 19 inches for a pointless story.

 

We're limited to 16 inches at the moment. Even at that length, I often feel like I'm doing the readers a disservice. Meanwhile, the SE can write a 30-inch column about his vacation and that's justified.

 

jesus. 95 percent of the time, there's never a reason to write more than 20.

 

Unless you had a good vacation.

 

touche.

 

We had a great day for local news today, best Friday worth of hard news since I got here a year ago. And I got the cover story even though I'm not a reporter (I just play one on TV).

 

Game advances do not need to be in depth.

And you can write something insightful in less than 300 words ... Lincoln did it.

 

Would there be a way to do an extended preview for the paper's website?

You have the basic story that runs in the paper, and then for the more devoted fans, with whom you've already developed a web presence, there is an extended version of the story available.

 

Lincoln also had a really cool hat. Get one, Pete.

 

Oh, and I usually keep my stories -- all but in-depth features -- about 15, 16 inches.

 

I'll defer to Ridgeway on the fashion advice.