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The problem every editor would kill to have

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by forever_town, Oct 30, 2007.

  1. forever_town

    forever_town Well-Known Member

    I'm still in the middle of putting my weekly paper to bed, but I wanted to come up for air for a second.

    This week, my paper has more pages than it's ever had since I've been there. I've got 22 stories, five opinion columns, and plenty of art. I had to take away a page that wasn't filler because I had more stuff to put in. Instead of scrambling to fill holes, I've been scrambling to find room.

    Days like that make me love my job.
     
  2. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    Great. Hope you didn't write all the stories, though, f-town.
     
  3. forever_town

    forever_town Well-Known Member

    I wrote one story, one column and two crime briefs. Everything else was my full-time reporter and freelance writers.
     
  4. expendable

    expendable Well-Known Member

    Every community newspaper editor's dream: Being able to cut stuff. Have fun with it.
     
  5. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

    when i was at a NE weekly the last 4 years, there were many weeks in a row i had to fill 16 pages. crazy weeks they were, but satisfying, too.
     
  6. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    Does sound like a great week.
     
  7. forever_town

    forever_town Well-Known Member

    I forgot the best part: No wire and no filler pages.

    Before I became editor here, this paper ran an average of five wire stories a week. Since I've come on board, we've averaged about one every two weeks. We used to run two neighbors pages before I came on board. Now we run one, which means I have one more page to fill.

    I'd better enjoy this while it lasts.
     
  8. BillyT

    BillyT Active Member

    The weekly paper I am working at part-time had to add four pages in the middle of the day before publication. It's the last issue for election stuff, and they sold at least one full-page ad, plus all the candidate profiles.
     
  9. HejiraHenry

    HejiraHenry Well-Known Member

    I learned a lot having to fill upwards of 18 pages in a weekly a few years back.
     
  10. spud

    spud Member

    While I chopped my reporter's copy down to fit my page this afternoon, I could hear his inner-self squeal with pain while I reveled in the fact that I kept out an AP story I had no interest in running.

    Then there are those other kinds of days...
     
  11. Chi City 81

    Chi City 81 Guest

    16 and ditto.
     
  12. forever_town

    forever_town Well-Known Member

    Same deal again this week. I had stuff I could have held if I needed to. When one story came in a lot shorter than I expected, I had one waiting in the wings that I could use.

    I've had to fill 16 pages again this week. No problem. I still have one or two things I could put on if I could just ... get ... one ... more ... PAGE!

    This week's count is 28 stories, two opinion columns, the rest photos. I had to kill an arts page to get one more page of news. There were some ads we had to kill because the creative wasn't in. And I still wish I had more room.
     
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