Alan Robinson

[Smasher_Sloan]

The other thing is: Are they really going to sweat a Royals-Mariners lead on a Tuesday night in August?

I can see them scrutinizing something major like an NFL playoff game, but otherwise it's what the guy/girl at the ballpark/arena sends in nearly all of the time. Remember this, too: The AP really does try to emphasize speed because that's what they hear from the client papers all the time. Give most papers a choice between a so-so lead at 10:30 or a better lead at 11, and I'll bet most of them will take the earlier one.

 

[beanpole]

It's my understanding this was after about 20 inches or so of copy were on the wire and they were in the rewrite process. His optional lead wasn't changed but instead he wasn't allowed to write it. A sports editor who was not at the game stepped in and wrote it instead.

Are we talking about the NewsNow file, or the first writethrough? And how, in most cases, could be screwed up about "Pete Pigskin scored three touchdowns to lead Podunk past Smalltown 24-7 Sunday night" that would require someone not at the stadium to do the story?

Something's really not adding up to me. Obviously, there's more than a dispute over the tone of a simple gamer here. But at the same time, someone who wasn't at the game, and may not have even watched it on the tube, is writing the story under someone else's byline? Am I missing something here? Or does this happen often on higher levels of writing??

Yes, this happens all the time, at least at AP. I wrote hundreds of stories under other people's bylines for breaking news and sports, as they dictated in from the field. Some would dictate a lede, others would just dump their notebooks. The byline at AP goes to the person on the scene of the event, but it's usually written elsewhere, and usually by more than one person.

I can't tell you how many times I'd work with a staffer in the field, and then they'd come back to the bureau hours later to read what "they" wrote for the wire. But it was rarely an adversarial thing, and staffers always had influence on a story if they didn't like the lede or the flow.

Usually AP reporters get their best chance to "write" with enterprise, second-day stories or an AMer of a game story. But there's no time and way too many editors involved for a reporter to have the luxury of writing his or her own breaking news story at AP.

That rarely happens on sports. When it's a baseball night and eight games are coming in at the same time, they don't have time (or desire) to screw around and overhandle the leads. They may make some routine editing changes, but 99% of the time, the story on the wire is essentially what the staffer has filed from the ballpark.

No argument here, that's what happens a lot. But the bigger the game/event/news story, the more editors get involved and writers can lose control of their stuff pretty quickly.

 

[Big Circus]

Steeler fan-on-Steeler fan violence!

What does the winner receive?

A Torry Bradshaw autographed jersey.

I hang out sometimes with one of my wife's friends' husbands. I like the guy a whole lot - he's super-nice, and he helped get me a jersey at a sweet price in December. He's also a Steelers fan, and when I was going back and forth on what jersey to get (I went with Adrian Peterson in purple), he wound up telling me, repeatedly over several conversations, that he was getting a "Ron" Woodson throwback. Should I correct him?

 

[93Devil]

Steeler fan-on-Steeler fan violence!

What does the winner receive?

A Torry Bradshaw autographed jersey.

I hang out sometimes with one of my wife's friends' husbands. I like the guy a whole lot - he's super-nice, and he helped get me a jersey at a sweet price in December. He's also a Steelers fan, and when I was going back and forth on what jersey to get (I went with Adrian Peterson in purple), he wound up telling me, repeatedly over several conversations, that he was getting a "Ron" Woodson throwback. Should I correct him?

Tell him Woodson never retired a Steeler, in fact it's not even close. Much better choices out there like Stallworth or Shell.

 

[cranberry]

It's my understanding this was after about 20 inches or so of copy were on the wire and they were in the rewrite process. His optional lead wasn't changed but instead he wasn't allowed to write it. A sports editor who was not at the game stepped in and wrote it instead.

Are we talking about the NewsNow file, or the first writethrough? And how, in most cases, could be screwed up about "Pete Pigskin scored three touchdowns to lead Podunk past Smalltown 24-7 Sunday night" that would require someone not at the stadium to do the story?

Something's really not adding up to me. Obviously, there's more than a dispute over the tone of a simple gamer here. But at the same time, someone who wasn't at the game, and may not have even watched it on the tube, is writing the story under someone else's byline? Am I missing something here? Or does this happen often on higher levels of writing??

Yes, this happens all the time, at least at AP. I wrote hundreds of stories under other people's bylines for breaking news and sports, as they dictated in from the field. Some would dictate a lede, others would just dump their notebooks. The byline at AP goes to the person on the scene of the event, but it's usually written elsewhere, and usually by more than one person.

I can't tell you how many times I'd work with a staffer in the field, and then they'd come back to the bureau hours later to read what "they" wrote for the wire. But it was rarely an adversarial thing, and staffers always had influence on a story if they didn't like the lede or the flow.

Usually AP reporters get their best chance to "write" with enterprise, second-day stories or an AMer of a game story. But there's no time and way too many editors involved for a reporter to have the luxury of writing his or her own breaking news story at AP.

That rarely happens on sports. When it's a baseball night and eight games are coming in at the same time, they don't have time (or desire) to screw around and overhandle the leads. They may make some routine editing changes, but 99% of the time, the story on the wire is essentially what the staffer has filed from the ballpark.

Plenty of editing/rewriting takes place every night. A writer will be specifically assigned to baseball, for example, and he/she will handle all of the baseball ledes, optionals and roundups. There's plenty to clean up every night and, in my experience, it was actually far more unusual for a lede to go out as it was originally written.

 

[Padre]

Give most papers a choice between a so-so lead at 10:30 or a better lead at 11, and I'll bet most of them will take the earlier one.

agreed, then I go back and look at the later one if time permits

 

[Smasher_Sloan]

It's my understanding this was after about 20 inches or so of copy were on the wire and they were in the rewrite process. His optional lead wasn't changed but instead he wasn't allowed to write it. A sports editor who was not at the game stepped in and wrote it instead.

Are we talking about the NewsNow file, or the first writethrough? And how, in most cases, could be screwed up about "Pete Pigskin scored three touchdowns to lead Podunk past Smalltown 24-7 Sunday night" that would require someone not at the stadium to do the story?

Something's really not adding up to me. Obviously, there's more than a dispute over the tone of a simple gamer here. But at the same time, someone who wasn't at the game, and may not have even watched it on the tube, is writing the story under someone else's byline? Am I missing something here? Or does this happen often on higher levels of writing??

Yes, this happens all the time, at least at AP. I wrote hundreds of stories under other people's bylines for breaking news and sports, as they dictated in from the field. Some would dictate a lede, others would just dump their notebooks. The byline at AP goes to the person on the scene of the event, but it's usually written elsewhere, and usually by more than one person.

I can't tell you how many times I'd work with a staffer in the field, and then they'd come back to the bureau hours later to read what "they" wrote for the wire. But it was rarely an adversarial thing, and staffers always had influence on a story if they didn't like the lede or the flow.

Usually AP reporters get their best chance to "write" with enterprise, second-day stories or an AMer of a game story. But there's no time and way too many editors involved for a reporter to have the luxury of writing his or her own breaking news story at AP.

That rarely happens on sports. When it's a baseball night and eight games are coming in at the same time, they don't have time (or desire) to screw around and overhandle the leads. They may make some routine editing changes, but 99% of the time, the story on the wire is essentially what the staffer has filed from the ballpark.

Plenty of editing/rewriting takes place every night. A writer will be specifically assigned to baseball, for example, and he/she will handle all of the baseball ledes, optionals and roundups. There's plenty to clean up every night and, in my experience, it was actually far more unusual for a lede to go out as it was originally written.

Minor changes? Yes, partly because the leads are in before the game ends and things change.

Major overhaul? Very rare.

 

[Mike Nadel]

Generally, it depends on 3 things:

1. Who is the AP writer? The better writers -- or those perceived by deskers and/or management types to be the better writers -- are edited less, especially on day-to-day game coverage and sports-news stories.

2. Which desker is it? Some simply feel the need to edit the crap out of every piece of copy that comes their way. Some edit little to nothing, especially in time-crunch situations. Some are in-between. Some only edit the crap out of copy if they historically don't trust a given writer (see No. 1 above). Some only edit heavily if time lets them.

3. How big is the event? As some mentioned earlier, the bigger the event the more likely the story will travel up the editing ladder and be heavily edited.

There you go, kids. Test on Friday.

 

[slappy4428]

Generally, it depends on 3 things:

1. Who is the AP writer? The better writers -- or those perceived by deskers and/or management types to be the better writers -- are edited less, especially on day-to-day game coverage and sports-news stories.

2. Which desker is it? Some simply feel the need to edit the crap out of every piece of copy that comes their way. Some edit little to nothing, especially in time-crunch situations. Some are in-between. Some only edit the crap out of copy if they historically don't trust a given writer (see No. 1 above). Some only edit heavily if time lets them.

3. How big is the event? As some mentioned earlier, the bigger the event the more likely the story will travel up the editing ladder and be heavily edited.

There you go, kids. Test on Friday.

So your stuff I read when I was in New Ulm and you were in Minneapolis was really written by Paula Froke under your byline? D-a-y-u-m, she's good.

 

[Mike Nadel]

C'man, man ... I was HUGE in New Ulm!

 

[slappy4428]

C'man, man ... I was HUGE in New Ulm!

Everyone was huge in New Ulm... damn German food.

 

[sports scrub]

Robinson is apparently freelancing for nhl.com: http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=552261&cmpid=rss-robinson

 

[KJIM]

[So your stuff I read when I was in New Ulm and you were in Minneapolis was really written by Paula Froke under your byline? D-a-y-u-m, she's good.

Wow, there's a name from my past.

She's very good at what she does.

 

[EagleMorph]

Robinson is apparently freelancing for nhl.com: http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=552261&cmpid=rss-robinson

He's freelancing quite a bit. He did some work covering Robert Morris University basketball for the Post-Gazette while their beat writer was helping with Super Bowl coverage. He's also contributing articles to Duquesne's site about its basketball team.

 

[93Devil]

Does he really need to have a resume when applying for these gigs, or does he just ask people to open any Pennsylvania newspaper from the last 15-20 years?

 

[HanSenSE]

(bump)

Will Graves had the byline on tonight's Dodgers-Pirates game, first non-national or non Pa.-based byline I've seen on a Pittsburgh story in a while. He was in Louisville.

 

[EagleMorph]

Graves is indeed the new Pittsburgh AP guy.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

(bump)

Will Graves had the byline on tonight's Dodgers-Pirates game, first non-national or non Pa.-based byline I've seen on a Pittsburgh story in a while. He was in Louisville.

I think he had a blog or something that said he would be heading to Pittsburgh. That was a few weeks ago. I thinkThe Derby was his last Lousiville-based event.

Al Robinson is doing some work for Duquesne.

 

[wicked]

AP announced Graves to Pittsburgh within the past couple weeks.

 

[HanSenSE]

AP announced Graves to Pittsburgh within the past couple weeks.

Must have missed it. Got a paper to put out, ya know?