Travel cutbacks?

There is no reason he would have to go to Canton to write that story. He wanted to go. If you pay your own way to cover an event, you're a glorified fanboy. If he was straight out of school, I think you could say he didn't know any better, but I get the sense that's not the case with him.

 

I know a fanboi who covers auto racing. He pays his own way, bought some of his own work equipment and is giddy at the thought of being around all the drivers.

 

I cover a Univ. home and away and expect to be told there will be no travel this upcoming season. However I thought the same thing this past season and ended up going on the road during the football season. For the time being I am going about the usual off-season duties as if I will be doing it again in the fall.

They do a fine job of selling the coverage to advertisers, so I would think as long as that keeps up, they will keep the travel. Though the SE at our place is spineless and won't fight for anything, and is very, very clueless on how to work a toaster let alone a department and the upper management is rather wishy-washy/flip flop so anything is possible.

I prepare for the worst, expect the least and anything different from that is a bonus in my eyes anymore.

I could totally see plans to cover the team on the road again only to be told at the last minute that travel plans are being scrapped. That's how our operation is run.

 

When the higher ups see my travel expenses next week they're gonna shit a brick. Might as well take it while they're dolling it out though, yeah?

 

Exactly

 

Can you half your expenses and turn one in next week and another the week after?

 

Here at the 36K stuck between two SEC programs, we'll do as we have always done – evaluate travel on a game by game basis.

We travel to all football games – I don't see that changing – and approach basketball on the basis that, as one team or theother starts to fade (if they do), then maybe we dial back a couple of the longer trips. Baseball we mainly cover on a home-game basis, but we might hit the road for something really special.

And, of course, we'll travel for bowl games, NCAA men's basketball tourney games and NCAA baseball regionals/CWS.

I've had no real inkling that we'll alter that plan at this time.

Stuff happens, though, as we all know.

 

In an odd twist, ticket prices to Europe are way lower than I've seen them in the past. A trip I take regularly and usually budget $1500 for is coming in now at around $800.

 

Amen. Think of the last time some company provided a service to you for free. That plumber who's coming to fix your sink? You're paying him. Tree guy? Check. (And don't forget to sign it.) Car mechanic? You're paying. You're providing a service to your employer. They owe you for it.

Giving away work helps NOBODY in this business, including and especially yourself.

 

Our operation is pretty similar, only often we only find out we are covering events the day of or the night before if we are lucky.

One quick example had the SE tell me at 11:30 p.m. on Thursday that I would be covering an event two states over that began Saturday at 9 a.m.

 

Mizzougrad....you're not being a dick at all. don't think i haven't thought of myself as a "fool" to have done this, but--get the violins ready--i honestly felt like it needed to be done. call it corny, mushy, stupid, whatever adjective you prefer, but i had know this guy since his high school days, knew how much it meant to the city and our readers and felt it needed to be covered personally.
i don't mind anybody piling on for incredibly naive approach of believing that mankind will be better off for me having been in Canton last summer, but i can live with it at the same. even if i am still making payments on those credit cards i used. ha.
oh, by the way, and honest to gosh: not that i was expecting anything at all, because--again, i did this because i felt like it was an event that needed to be covered--but i never got one "atta boy, we really appreciate you going up there on your own and covering that for us" or whatever from the bossman. i wasn't expecting one, of course, but hey..if i had known somebody had done that, i would have been embarrassed as hell that they took it out of their own pocket and yet still covered the dang event for us.
but yea, i am either a fool, stupid or dedicated to this craft and my job to the point of being ridiculous.

 

Micke, I admire your dedication, etc., but you weren't doing it for them. You were doing it for you.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's not going to keep you fed or keep your lights lit.