What does "deadline" mean?

No, but it can be used as justification to terminate his employment.

 

if only Yodel was this cat's boss...

 

A wise ME once told us, "Deadline is not an option."

The guy was grade-A MBA pinhead/douche but this was one of the few good points he ever made.

 

If deadlines bother you, get out the business. It's just that simple.

 

A lot of the time, writers don't understand why I need their story at 10:45 if the page isn't due until 11:20. Writers have made me late before, but I think it's important to not kill them since I will most likely need them the next night, as well. I make it a point not to advertise their tardiness, but if it comes back on me, all bets are off.

 

You're way too nice. Deadline is what it is. If it's not in, I'm filling the page with something else.
If it's a stringer, and he's late, he just wasted his time.
Deadline is pretty much self explanatory.

 

Oh, I would never hold space for a stringer. But if the person is sitting two desks down, I'm more leniant. But I've found ways of working around it. Worst case scenario, I cut their space and use the first part of the story, then put the "unabridged version" in for second edition.

 

A former editor loved to point out the dictionary's second definition of deadline.

"The line that prisoners may cross only at the risk of being shot."

 

And at our shop, I would point out the definition of "understaffed".

 

at our place, making deadline is a major part of the yearly goals that determines your salary bump. We have to hit deadline more than 95 percent of the time to reach the goal. -- that goes for each department and for the overall newsrooom. And it doesn't matter the reason. Power goes out, computer system fails and you miss, you miss. Needless to say, stress level is pretty high around deadline.
If a writer is lagging, we fill with something else.

 

Maybe it has a lot to do with why I'm so pissy, but at my place that would scare no one. Why? Because they've frozen our salaries for going on five years.

 

Truthfully, this was more of a "brothers in arms" scenario. He was on our side against 99.44% of the corporate BS that came flowing our way.