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Wash Post: With Readers, Sports Pages Can't Win

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Flying Headbutt, Oct 14, 2007.

  1. wickedwritah

    wickedwritah Guest

    Actually, no.

    A number of places still got a first-edition run, and some shops fired up the presses regardless of whether the gamer was in.
     
  2. imjustagirl2

    imjustagirl2 New Member

    I disagree with your first sentence. Our paper is no longer just missing West Coast scores. Hell, we're missing East Coast scores sometimes.

    Deadlines are insane, and no one's willing to do anything to change it.
     
  3. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    Fine, if they want to be anal about deadlines, then you be anal too.

    If pages are supposed to be off floor by 10:00 p.m., then send them at 9:59:45. If a playoff game gets over at 10:01:35, tough shit. Deadline is deadline.

    When they start bitching about stuff not getting in the paper, show them the time stamps on the AP wire. Deadline is deadline. They want it out by 10:00.00, they get it by 10:00.00.
     
  4. wickedwritah

    wickedwritah Guest

    I think we really need to re-evaluate our delivery and distribution methods.

    Maybe it's time we eliminate the one big printing facility and build some smaller ones. Added expense? Yes. Might it help with distribution issues? Maybe.

    We must realize that, especially in metro areas, there will be more than one buy. Maybe it's time for the suburban rimshotters to work with the major metros in their area, and lease out some printing space. What's good for the big metro eventually will be good for the suburban paper, since we're at the point where we need to team up, not kill each other off.
     
  5. imjustagirl2

    imjustagirl2 New Member

    That's what we have to do. IF we miss a deadline by 30 seconds, we have to explain to 2-3 people why. Not things like 'the game didn't end.'

    WE usually have 1-2 'The game didn't end in time for this edition. Please check bfuckgazette.com for results and read tomorrow's Gazette for coverage" a day.

    We get to replate for some things. But only to a certain point. Here's one thing: We staffed the race in Charlotte last week. Our deadline was 11:30. Obviously didn't get it. Got to replate until like 12:15. Writer filed at 12:06. Paper off the floor 10 minutes later. Guy in charge still got yelled at, despite redoing our front in 10 minutes.
     
  6. fishwrapper

    fishwrapper Active Member

    Night editor in 1880: "Our deadlines are near impossible thus making it difficult for edition submission."
    Night editor in 2007: "Our deadlines suck."

    This isn't new, either. The only thing that is new is start times for events. Events used to be scheduled in accordance with newspaper deadlines. Nowadays, events are scheduled for primetime television ratings and Madison Ave.
     
  7. fishwrapper

    fishwrapper Active Member

    I think you have a point. It would be wise to make improvements in our delivery system.
    But, I can just see myself making that pitch:

    Me: I think I have an idea where we can improve our distribution and give editorial some added time on deadline.
    CEO: Really? Great! What do you have?
    Me: Well, see, we break up our three presses in one plant and have three plants with one press spread out throughout the county.
    CEO: [Eyes glassing over]
    Me: Well, sure it will cost millions with logistical problems throughout and zero return on the investment. But, we could give our Sports deskers a few more minutes each night to make sure we get in the Seattle Mariners' boxscore.
    CEO: [Stroking out, multiple aneurysms]
    Me: Whattyathink?
     
  8. wickedwritah

    wickedwritah Guest

    Didn't say it would fly. I'm just curious how effective it might be.

    Part of the issue we have is that we pay carriers way too little. It's a conundrum, though, since we can't pay them too much more; as far as I know, carriers get 40 percent of the paper's newsstand price.
     
  9. Frank_Ridgeway

    Frank_Ridgeway Well-Known Member

    Nah, the deadlines are worse. Anyone who lives near a large city could see why. Suburban sprawl has meant longer commutes, so people want the paper earlier because they get up earlier. Even though the places I've been recently have newer and faster presses than the old letterpresses the papers had early in my career, the deadlines are worse, and it's because readers' lives have changed. We have to drive farther to get it to them and we have have to get it to them earlier.

    About 10 years ago the SE wasn't feeling well and called to ask me to fill in for him at a meeting. Really strange. It was off-campus, in a hotel conference room. The topic was [whisper]deadlines.[/whisper] Now a lot of these people were lifers there, including the editor -- this was all new to them. And the publisher decided we needed to lose, I forget, I think it was an hour, something like that. And the editor says to me, well, what happens with sports? And I say, well, we're not going to get probably anything but the East Coast games in the first edition, and maybe not all of those if there's overtime or extra innings. And he says, well, what's the impact of that. And I say, well, every other newspaper our size has the same deal, including our competition in a larger city nearby -- people won't be happy, but it's not like they can find anything better on anything else that's on newsstands around here, and in fact I've worked on the West Coast and first-edition readers don't get all the games there, either, if it's a large paper. OK, then, the editor says, thanks for coming.

    I'm a guy who cares about the product, but it's just been something I've never questioned, it's just been a given for my entire career. You don't like an incomplete sports section? Well, we didn't tell you to move to that new subdivision 50 miles away -- the people who live nearby get the final edition. But now it's changed with the Internet and people expect completeness. The best answer is to spend tens of millions of dollars to add more presses, but it would be cheaper and easier to just ... umm, reorganize ... which readers get screwed worst.

    One newspaper I worked on practiced a sort of demographic redlining with deadlines. Its traditional way of shipping papers had been that the areas farthest from our city got the first edition because it took longest to drive it there -- although since there's really not much traffic late at night, you're really talking only an hour max. But lots of rich folks lived there. So they decided to give the rich folks way the hell up there a later edition, and give the first edition to poorer people living right outside the city. This sucks very bad, but I bet we'll see a lot more of this. Poor neighborhoods not a mile from the paper getting the early edition, rich suburbanites 50 miles away getting the final.
     
  10. imjustagirl2

    imjustagirl2 New Member

    We had three deadlines when I started here. 10 p.m., 12:05 a.m. and 1:15.

    Now, three years later? 9:30 and 11:30.


    Things definitely are different.
     
  11. hockeybeat

    hockeybeat Guest

    The deadlines at my first paper never changed during my tenure:

    8:30, 11:15, 12:30, 2:30 (for replates).
     
  12. wickedwritah

    wickedwritah Guest

    At my next-to-last stop, we had really forgiving deadlines: 12:40 a.m. (for a 1 a.m. press time), with an extra 30 minutes on Friday nights.

    Current stop has 10:40 and a couple post-midnight deadlines. Papers don't start rolling for later editions until after 1 a.m.
     
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