Word limits

Agreed that 14 inches is plenty enough for a gamer. No high school gamer should go above 12 for any reason. (10 is most reasonable.) Any additional information belongs in the notebook/sidebar/box score/column. But columns should be longer than 14 inches, more like 20 to 30. /Just one person's two cents.

 

You need at least 500 for that.

 

"First the Earth cooled. Then the dinosaurs came, but they were too fat and died and turned into oil. Then the Arabs came and all bought Mercedes-Benzes. And Prince Charles started wearing all of Lady Di's clothes; I couldn't believe it! He took her best summer dress out of the closet and tried it on..."

 

B.P.:

Just be prepared -- your office is about to become the most disorganized place you could ever imagine. People are going to keep trying to break the word cap, and it'll be a test of wills, probably at least until the end of basketball season.

The people breaking the rule will have all kinds of dumb reasons:

"We ALWAYS have done it this way!"

"The story 5 days ago (before the rule -- but let's not use logic) was 15.5 inches!"

And so on.

 

Yes, but will it be an enjoyable read?

 

By my count, it's more like 12 inches.
I can see a hard and fast cap for something like dropping copy in a column well with no jump... but even that's a lot more than 425 words...

 

Lincoln was one smart mofo

 

Nice

 

I definitely agree. I have heard some writers give prep gamers 20 inches of ink. I think that is way to much. We usually do 10-12 inches max on prep games. Anything more for high school is really not necessary. College games are usually 15-20 inches but it always depends on the importance of the game etc.

 

You must work at a Gannett paper...

 

That's in your reality. Where you are, that may be absolutely appropriate. If you're in some small town of 4,000 which draws 6,000 for its high school football games, you may want to re-think your position.