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One man shops: You all have my admiration

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Mooninite, Jun 8, 2010.

  1. Mooninite

    Mooninite Member

    Covered the state track meet in our state last weekend. Man, there are a lot of hard-working men and women at small papers doing it all. Taking pictures and video, writing stories and then going back to the office and doing the pages too in some cases.
    I'm lucky, I work at a small 25,000 daily and I didn't have to do all of that stuff last weekend, just the writing part. I admire all you one-man shops and everything you have to do to cover an event.
    Just wanted to give you all an atta boy.
     
  2. Thanks for the shoutout Moon for myself and others. A long second day at the state track meet with a lot of storylines. Wrote four stories, snapped photos and laid it out.

    JF
     
  3. schiezainc

    schiezainc Well-Known Member

    I appreciate the kinds words. As I type this I'm putting off writing five track stories totaling 4,000 words that have to be done between now and 2 p.m. and trying to figure out where to fit sleep in.

    But, hey, this is what the job is and, sometimes, the thrill of beating the clock is exhilarating.
     
  4. Stitch

    Stitch Active Member

    How do you work it into 40 hours, since there was a topic a few months back that you and Rhody had going? When I was at a twice-weekly, I always wrote my stories the same day so I never had to work a marathon shift writing copy.
     
  5. schiezainc

    schiezainc Well-Known Member

    Well, it's an endless circle really.

    Since we don't have a ton of hours to work with, and we can't have OT, we basically cover as much as we can on Thursday-Sunday and save the writing for Monday-Tuesday since it's easier to write fast when you know how long you have to go with each story.

    But because we do it that way, we end up burning through a shit ton of our hours by Wednesday night/Thursday morning, the day our last paper goes out, and have to do it all over again.

    For instance, I just pounded out an 800 word track story in about 35 minutes. Not too bad. Now I'm down to four stories totaling about 3,200 words and am going to try to sleep for about four hours, get up at 9 a.m., write all four, drive to the office, finish layout in time for 2 p.m., drive to McCoy Stadium for a game, write two stories from that, layout our last paper and try to do it all in enough time that I have anywhere between 7-10 hours left for the week after production ends tomorrow. (I'm currently at about 22 hours for the week ... since yesterday).

    It's not easy but don't feel bad for me. These killer days are more than worth it when I wake up Thursday afternoon and have very little to do for the next couple days.
     
  6. schiezainc

    schiezainc Well-Known Member

    Oh, and the next two weeks are going to be awesome.

    With Rhody on his honeymoon, I have the task of doing six three-four page sections, with no AP, all by myself.

    I've got it pretty well planned out but, believe me, I'm going to be a whiny bitch all week. :)
     
  7. Stitch

    Stitch Active Member

    You have to be working off the clock if you put in 22 hours up to yesterday, then work a full day, and then try to cover games over the next three days.
     
  8. schiezainc

    schiezainc Well-Known Member

    Not really. Typically, on Wednesdays I've worked between 32-34 hours and usually only have to cover two, maybe three, things. All of our games last about an hour and a half so if I time it right, I usually hit hour No. 40 right as the last game ends or right before it.
     
  9. Stitch

    Stitch Active Member

    You must not have to cover Legion baseball if you can get out in 90 minutes. :)
     
  10. schiezainc

    schiezainc Well-Known Member

    Eh, Legion comes in the summer and by that point we're only working 20-25 hours by the time the weekend rolls around.

    Oh, and Legion sucks ass.
     
  11. bumpy mcgee

    bumpy mcgee Well-Known Member

    Our guy just got back from a legion game that started at 6:30. 18-14 final.
     
  12. schiezainc

    schiezainc Well-Known Member

    In terms of summer coverage, the scale of what interests me goes something like this:


    Summer Road Races
    Governor's Cup Rhode Island vs. Connecticut High School Football All-Star Game
    Little League All-Star Playoff Games



















    Amateur Baseball


















    Surfing Contests


















    Old Ladies Playing Bingo












    10-year old Karate tournaments

















    Legion Baseball
     
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