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Travel cutbacks?

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by micke77, Jan 14, 2009.

  1. micke77

    micke77 Member

    nope, the No. 1 reason it was done was because of the significance of the event and the guy being from the city where our newspaper is located. repeat: Pro Football Hall of Fame. not just "another" event. and had i been a writer just new on the block and in town for just a couple of years and not known that much about the inductee, i would have never had that hell-bent-to-cover-it mindset.
    it would have been oh-so-easy to have tried and located a stringer or gone the wire service route, but this particular situation--in my apparently foolish view--warranted special coverage.
     
  2. Stitch

    Stitch Active Member

    I'm going with "It was for me". Why, because you just had to be there. It was ego because you thought you could do something no one else could. I just hope you haven't been "encouraged" by the bosses to go on more trips on your own.

    Now this is piling it on, but if you thought you were so great to do all of this, shouldn't you get paid to do this. The newspaper you worked for committed a crime by publishing your work. Seriously, it is a crime to have someone do work off of the clock. Search Wal-Mart and overtime on Google.
     
  3. Mediator

    Mediator Member

    I can see why you did it Micke, and it's something I'd do, too, for a once in a career kind of thing. (Not sure I'd file 8 to 10 stories... maybe one or two and then go bask in the Canton sun.)

    If you go into this business counting dimes or feeling like you're getting one over on the company every time you pay for your vacation with Marriott points, you'll never get even.

    As for the bigger issue, our travel budget has been gutted. We don't cover most pro teams away anymore, and 10 years ago we were at most major sports events from the Super Bowl to the Final Four. If they stop taking AP, as is one of the rumors out there, we won't have a section.
     
  4. micke77

    micke77 Member

    understand the feedback totally. You are right. Remind me to contact Ego to get compensated for what that stupid scribe paid to cover such an insigificant event as the Pro Football Hall of Fame inductions.
     
  5. Stitch

    Stitch Active Member

    I don't know if you want an echo chamber or not, but you won't get too much sympathy here for forking over the dough for the privilege of working.
     
  6. micke77

    micke77 Member

    Stitch....no echo chamber is required and pardon me if this whole thing has gotten totally away from our original post regarding the cutting back for travel. i take the blame for digressing in this whole topic, but used the Canton trip as some sort of alleged example of what we were wanting to discuss. trust me, i have been through enough "rodeos" in this business not to require echo chambers or sympathy therapy sessions.
    and if i set a bad precedent, i am sure President Obama can bailout any future guilty parties.
     
  7. micropolitan guy

    micropolitan guy Well-Known Member

    Our basketball travel for Microville Tech has been eliminated.

    For several years we used to send two on football trips. That's been pared to one, even on bowl games.

    As a result, the major metro up the road kills us on road games.
     
  8. micke77

    micke77 Member

    the major metros to the east and west of us no longer go on road trips, either. so the three papers--including us--that covers the D-I team in our area are no shows at road games. the SID at the school we cover said that he is always being asked, "where are the out-of-town media?", but such are the cutbacks these days.
     
  9. SixToe

    SixToe Well-Known Member

    You don't love the D-I team enough to cover them on the road out of your pocket?

    ;D
     
  10. Stitch

    Stitch Active Member

    If metros can't cover major league sports on road trips, it isn't a surprise that college travel gets cut.
     
  11. Screwball

    Screwball Active Member

    From an SI blog ... http://blogs.golf.com/presstent/2009/01/sportswriters-a.html

    By Alan Shipnuck
    SI Senior Writer

    Golf writers have been on the endangered species list for a while now but 2008 was a particularly brutal year.

    Longtime scribes from big-time newspapers in L.A., Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Oakland and elsewhere took buyouts or were otherwise downsized, casualties of a dying industry and cratering economy.

    The Mercedes was when all of this hit home for me. I’ve been coming to the tournament since the mid-90’s, and it was always a fun chance to catch up with colleagues in an intimate setting after the long off-season.

    This year there might as well be tumbleweed blowing through the press room. Excepting the Hawaii contingent, the New York Times is the American newspaper that has sent a writer here. The AP is on the scene, and Art Spander, an ink-stained wretch for half a century until he, too, got a pink slip last year, is on hand but is writing for a Web site and a few outlets in Great Britain, where newspapers still matter, a little.
     
  12. micke77

    micke77 Member

    SixToe....good line.
    nah, guess not.
    my ego doesn't allow it and i would probably set a bad precedent.
     
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