What was on your front page for July 10, 2012?

One of our sports interns had the A1 feature today and actually did a pretty good job. Story about a local kid who plays a lot of sports, but has had both legs amputated at the knee. Actually had to learn how to walk three times due to prosthetic changes. The best part is that his name is Anakin. That is awesome.

But nothing breaking really going on with A1. I was able to find a recruiting story for sports with a new commitment, but other than that, slowwwwww.

 

We went with a series of championship games from district Little League.

 

Since Iowa plays its prep baseball and softball in the summer, we had tournament games in softball, with two area teams playing to go to state. (Both lost, so we had the obligatory crying player shot).

Those games, plus the ASG preview, plus a feature from an area college basketball summer league, gave me plenty of stuff for Page 1.

Tonight, we had two more softball regional finals, plus the ASG, plus the Iowa basketball coach getting a new contract, plus prep baseball districts. We had a full paper.

Thursday's paper is going to be interesting, though. The minor-league baseball team is home, so there is that.

 

Considering the Worldwide Leader has been showing results from the WNBA as well as the NBA Summer League this morning, I'd say we aren't the only ones.

 

Isn't tomorrow or Friday's paper a slower sports day? Today was easy.

 

Is there anyone who does that??

 

Oh, plenty. I see it all the time, particularly at small papers, including ones where I worked. If someone wasn't working, say, Tuesday, they usually didn't offer any input.

I would try to map out ideas a week in advance, knowing where the busy and slow spots were. I nearly blew a fuse one time when someone ran an insignificant Monday night football game as centerpiece. They're response was "It was a slow day. I didn't have anything else.". My response was: "That's why you have to plan this stuff ahead of time, have a gameplan and then make changes as events dictate." But failing to plan is planning to fail.

 

I really, really like this. I absolutely hate trying to find a jump page. Meets the t_b_f 2012 Best Practices standard.

And, if anyone knows what my opinion is worth, it's you.