Player's mother e-mails in pictures/What I wish I could do

A player's mother e-mailed me some pictures today of her son's team after they won a playoff game. Basically, they are just team photos. I also don't think there are any names with them. (I'd have to download the pictures to be sure and as an editor of mine was fond of saying, "Life is too short.) I'd love to write her back to tell her we're not going to run this garbage, but instead I will just post this message.

I know I'm not the only one in this boat.

I'm wondering if she will send more after the team's next playoff game, which is against the No. 1 seed, which will probably result in a one-sided loss for her son's team. My guess would be no.

 

So why does this bother you, exactly? Does your paper have a website that would allow her to post the photos there and you could direct her to that?

 

What bothers me is that she would think we would run that picture. It lacks professionalism to run it and we don't have the space. Plus this is the latest example of parents telling us what to run. Woman also thought we should write about the NCAA tournament run of the Division III women's volleyball team her daughter is on, but rarely plays.

I'm also especially steamed today because probably about 40 percent of what I was told to write did not make the paper for space reasons.

Although our paper does have a (terrible) Web site, it doesn't have a mechanism where she could have posted the photos to. E-mailing it directly to someone was the only option.

 

OK, but my point is that people are always going to want you to run stories or cover games or put photos in the paper that you are not going to want or be able to do.

So you need to get over it real quick and be willing to email the woman back and say thank you but you won't be able to use the photo.

A person interested in your paper is not a bad thing to have these days.

 

I'm just going to ignore her request.

Part of the problem is that this is an affluent city, whose residents think they can get their way with everything.

I don't think this woman -- a powerful and prominent attorney -- is all that interested in the newspaper. What she's interested in is getting her children's names in the newspaper.

 

Good luck with the ignoring thing.

 

Every parent wants there children's names and accomplishments in the paper. Thats how small dailies stay in business. I'd tell her to get an action photo next time and run it as a courtesy photo.

 

I think I'll be successful with that. Paper is a weekly. By the time the paper comes out, the victory in this game will be forgotten and the team's season will be over, ending about a game over .500.

 

Or - and this is from way out in leftfield, so bare with me a second - you could call her and tell her what kind of photographs you will run and what kind of information you need with them.

But, no, I'm sure that's just too damn crazy. I mean everyone knows an attorney is too stupid to understand the complexities of journalism.

Forget I mentioned it.

 

You're in a weekly and not running it? Wow.
I think it's immature to not respond. At least send her an e-mail that says why you aren't going to run it. Explain to her what kind of pictures you will run so she knows what she can do. She's actually making your job easier and your trying to make things difficutl

 

We don't have the space for sports photos. We don't have sufficient space to cover sports as we should. I doubt attorney has the capability of taking an action baseball picture.

 

Wow, I already have one convert to my cult.