One man shops: You all have my admiration

My game lasted only three hours today. Combined run total for doubleheader yesterday was 59 runs. Luckily, I covered just the first game.

 

Yeah, I've always admired the guys and gals at the smaller shops who do it all. Lots of grunt work, little glory and (usually) below-standard pay.

Came close to taking a SE job at a two-person shop last year and realized that preps and little league wasn't really my passion and that isn't what I wanted to spend my time on. But I admire the people who do.

 

I wish I had the resources of today back in the day when I was a one-man gig at my first two jobs in the biz. (Back then, we thought fax machines were high-tech.) Would have been a hell of a lot easier. No, I could never get it all done in 40 hours a week.

 

Did the one-man shop thing years back when I was in my 20s. No chance I would ever be able to do it again with a wife and kids.

I mostly worked 40 because I insisted I get compensated for any overtime. It wasn't that high-paying a gig, so I rationalized that if they fired me, I'd just find a more high-paying field. And for the most part, except for high school playoff and preview times, I hit the 40 hours. I would even fall a little short during the summer, but no one said anything.

 

Did the one man shop thing once. Lasted five or six weeks. Couldn't afford it. And also wanted to stab myself.

 

To me, the toughest job in journalism is a one-man sports department (writing, pics and layout) at a small daily. It was tough enough at my last stop, being one of two in sports at a small daily. Up late doing stories/working on pics/going through the wire/layout and then back in at 6 a.m. to finish everything and proof. Doing all that by yourself? Maybe, MAYBE if I was a bachelor.

 

Married, one kid, two horses, house full of pets, one-man sports department at a weekly. Luckily, it's a VERY rare time when I have to layout anything because the our one-woman production department has been in the biz for a couple decades.
Must say I also have a part-time gig in the sports department of a daily paper in the next city (long story, but everyone is OK with it, especially since six of the schools are covered by both papers and I have a good relationship with them), but the money from the second job is almost always offset by the long hours.
Case in point, I put in a pair of 12-hour days covering the state track meet this past weekend for both papers, writing for both and taking pictures for one. I get paid hourly for the part-time job, but the full-time job is set up so there's no overtime. Between the two I just ended a two-week stretch of 80-hour weeks.
That part-time check will be nice when it arrives tomorrow, but the hours drop off considerably over the summer.
But, hey, only seven weeks until we gear way up for the fall sports tab.