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St. Pete, err, Tampa Bay Times, cuts pay, people

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by 1HPGrad, Oct 6, 2011.

  1. Balthier

    Balthier Member

    Re: St. Pete cuts pay, people

    Hmmm ... does Michael Anastasi think this is "horse shit" as well?
     
  2. 1HPGrad

    1HPGrad Member

    Re: St. Pete cuts pay, people

    I hear you and agree to certain extent, but columnists have fans. I'm not a huge Romano guy, but he has a following. I'd rather read Tard from his 1960s kitchen than some lesser writer whose only advantage over Tard is being at the ballpark. Tard's still going to give me a much better deadline read.
    Finding national columns is pretty difficult, and I imagine just about everybody who has spent more than 5 nights on a desk has been burned by waiting for one to land.
    Lopresti is super human fast and good. Lot of the other guys are not as good with deadlines, or just aren't as good.
    Again, I'm speaking mainly about deadline columns. I'd go with my guy over their guy or some guy I've never dealt with on deadline every time in that situation.
     
  3. reformedhack

    reformedhack Well-Known Member

    Re: St. Pete cuts pay, people

    Yes, but the Times arrived a day later.
     
  4. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    Re: St. Pete cuts pay, people

    I completely agree, but if you feel you need a columnist presence from the World Series, you send him to the fucking game.

    If you can't afford to do so, which I would completely understand, you let Romano write about any of the other zillions of sporting events going on around Tampa...

    I love the SP Times. It's a great paper. What I don't like about the place is the holier-than-thou attitude that some there have. You always hear about how Poynter and the Times hold themselves to a higher standard that the other papers... To have a columnist write a column from his couch shits all over that kind of thinking...

    I know big papers who have done it, and I'm not going to list them here, but they're papers that you would expect that from, to an extent, which certainly does not excuse it.
     
  5. 1HPGrad

    1HPGrad Member

    Re: St. Pete cuts pay, people

    It's totally a cost measure. Romano has a green light in terms of ideas. It's still the World Series. I'd rather read him on that than him on something else that's forced or not as timely. And you're right, A LOT of the big boys are starting to do this more and more. Sad.
    As for SP, Poynter and its holier than thou, oh, the stories I could tell about that. I'll PM you a good one.
     
  6. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    Re: St. Pete cuts pay, people

    If it was completely Romano's decision that changes things a bit... I worked with a columnist a hell of a lot more famous than him and they would have never let him do that.
     
  7. Raiders

    Raiders Guest

    Re: St. Pete cuts pay, people

    The natural devolution is that the columnist will make a habit out of thinking, "Gee, I really wanna write those columns, but I hate all that travel shit. I'll just write them from home."

    If you're not big enough to go there, and work there, I don't want your couch column.
     
  8. 1HPGrad

    1HPGrad Member

    Re: St. Pete cuts pay, people

    Yeah, but you've been out of the biz for a while, correct? Even 3 years ago, this would have been frowned upon for all of the obvious reasons. Now it's so common I barely notice the missing dateline.
    I'm seriously wondering whether spending $800 so Shelton can write a game-day column from London makes sense in the same week you're laying off staff members because of budget concerns. If he does go, that ain't gonna go over too well in the newsroom.
     
  9. Raiders

    Raiders Guest

    Re: St. Pete cuts pay, people

    If he stays home, I want a line in there saying he was watching it on TV.

    The readers can translate that into "My paper can't afford stuff anymore, but I still want to write about it."
     
  10. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    Re: St. Pete cuts pay, people

    I wonder how many they sent over there. I think a writer and a columnist would suffice, but it wouldn't surprise me if they have three there. Considering the Times used to travel 5-6 for the Bucs, that would seem reasonable.

    I understand the "have fewer people do more work" plan. Hell, it's the reason I'm not in the business anymore. I worked at a paper that sent 25 to a Super Bowl. I've seen idiotic spending. I had a boss who made me travel with a team we had never traveled with and there was no reason to because he was worried that if we didn't spend more money, we'd get a smaller budget the following year. Love the logic...

    How commonplace have couch columns become? That's a place where I would draw the line, but that's just me...
     
  11. Versatile

    Versatile Active Member

    Re: St. Pete cuts pay, people

    Did you who criticize actually take the time to read Romano's World Series column?

    It didn't present itself as a live column, and it didn't use quotes off the TV or AP gamer. It was a couch column that didn't pretend not to be a couch column. I don't see anything wrong with that, for the same reason I see nothing wrong with Richard Justice writing a fairly lengthy blog post about Tommy Tuberville and Texas Tech's win against Oklahoma even though he wasn't there. I'm not defending the column's quality, just his right to write it.

    We need to give the readers something they want to read. Would I rather have my columnist doing original reporting? Sure. But sometimes, a good, quick opinion piece serves the readers. The key is to avoid making it look like you were there when you weren't, Mr. Albom.
     
  12. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    Re: St. Pete cuts pay, people

    I don't know... If I was the editor at the SP Times, I would have told Romano to find a different subject to write about. That's just me...

    Obviously people with a lot more experience than me disagree.
     
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