Questions for you one-man sports department types

sweetbreads bailey,
One sports department covering two people should be able to have at least two staff members — you and at least one other writer, not counting the stringers. I'd make that point abundantly clear to your boss. If he/she/they don't get the message, start backing down the coverage of some things.

I know that sounds cheap because, like many of us, I can tell you care about what you write and how it's put together. However, when the quality and your personal life both suffer — and they will if you keep going the extra mile — the powers that be and public will come a-calling looking for answers.

I'm in a similar boat. I do the sports for a twice-a-week newspaper with the help of a stringer. We both take photos. I don't do layout, though; that's handled by our two-person production department, which includes a lady who's been laying out newspapers for more than two decades and is a perfectionist. Oh, yeah, I'm also one of the paper's two general reporters (we're trying to hire a third) and am in charge of updating the Web page.

I also work part-time in the sports department of a daily paper in a town about 13 miles away. They actually print our paper for us, so our relationship is very good. We don't even have that much competition when it comes to ads. In fact, the situation works out well for both parties, since six of the eight schools I cover at my full-time job are also covered by the daily paper. I know it's unique situation, but it works well for both papers, though it can be challenging since I write separate stories for each paper when I'm covering a team both papers are interested in.

Back to the topic: I had to lay down the law a couple years ago at my full-time job because I was the only one covering sports — no stringers allowed. It was awful because they wanted both schools in town to get as much coverage as possible (which is fine), but expected one person to do it all (which is not fine). You can imagine how little time I got to spend with my wife and son. I told my editor it WAS NOT possible and she finally got permission from the publisher to loosen the purse strings.

Bottom line, keep after your boss to help you make it better or tell them they can expect some copy and photo cutbacks.

 

Thanks folks for the greats words of wisdom ... always nice to hear other perspectives ... i actually took this past Friday off and let a stringer handle the big football game. I took my wife to a marriage conference (wahoo- big points for me at home, right ;D ) actually, the conference was much better than I thought it might be, and we both learned a lot that helped us communicate better (Imagine that) ... but I digress...

 

Well put. And worth remembering.

I guess that was the final straw in my case -- everyone knew that nothing was gonna improve, and that the suits were quite content to look the other way until we burned out and left, opening the door for cheap replacements.

That didn't kill the machine, of course, but people are more important than the machines they run.

Ya gotta be able to breathe and have the proper time to enjoy your family and home life.