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PM vs. AM

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by sportpro, Feb 12, 2008.

  1. sportpro

    sportpro New Member

    I work at a daily PM paper within 20 minutes of a metro. We tried a mid-morning edition for the past six months, but our readers like the PM cycle. A plus to this is that we get today's news in today. This cycle seems to work for us, especially if we have a story the day before the metro has it in the AM edition. What are you're thoughts? I get the feeling that papers who went to a morning cycle back in the 1980s might be regretting that move? PM papers can thrive if done the right way. ...
     
  2. HejiraHenry

    HejiraHenry Well-Known Member

    It's possible that, in select markets, a PM might still find a niche in the shadow of a dominant AM. But there must be some reason all the significant PMs died off even before your average AM thought it had a problem.

    You can flog the notion that you're getting "today's news in today," but for the most part your local reporters are delivering last night's news this afternoon.

    Now there is a marketing slogan.
     
  3. expendable

    expendable Well-Known Member

    Since my shop mails most of its papers out and dates it a day after it goes to press (Tuesday press day, dated Wednesday), I've given my paper the slogan: Yesterday's news...Tomorrow.
     
  4. mdpoppy

    mdpoppy Member

    Read: The Capital Times
     
  5. joe

    joe Active Member

    My paper is a family owned PM. With no jumps. Still sells pretty well.

    Personally, it kills me to get up at 6:30 every morning, but it makes up for it when I have my late afternoons, evenings and nights off. And I haven't worked a weekend in more than a month.
     
  6. Rumpleforeskin

    Rumpleforeskin Active Member

    I work for a PM that has two major metros within 30 minutes. It sucks, but at the same time, we are the only paper covering the one D-1 college in our town.
     
  7. britwrit

    britwrit Well-Known Member

    Depending on the reporter, PMs can usually provide better local coverage. A city council meeting that runs late, a shooting in the wee hours, these are the types of stories that benefit from a noon deadline. Of course, this is probably only for smaller papers which cover only one town or one county but the model still works.
     
  8. Beach_Bum

    Beach_Bum Member

    We all work for PM papers. Our Web sites are our AM papers.
    All of us just haven't realized this yet. :)
     
  9. pseudo

    pseudo Well-Known Member

    Agreed... but how many of those people still have time to sit down and read the paper during their workday?

    Also, one doesn't often see "The game ended too late for this edition" in a PM. As a reader, if my two local papers (both sub-20K dailies) were otherwise equal, that alone would be a good enough reason for me to choose the afternoon option. As it is, the PM has a vastly superior sports section headed by an SE I'd love to work for if I ever make it that far, so the AM has never been a viable alternative.
     
  10. toivo99

    toivo99 Member

    For those here with p.m. papers, what's the sports deadline? Mine has just been moved up to 7:30 a.m., and I'm having trouble convincing my boss that it's damn near impossible to do that.
     
  11. Rumpleforeskin

    Rumpleforeskin Active Member

    9:30 a.m. here.
     
  12. Batman

    Batman Well-Known Member

    Ours is 10:30 a.m., but we can go to 11 if there's something breaking late (like the Clemens stuff today).
     
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