Avoid the obvious

[joe_schmoe]

To my fellow sports journalists who have to cover a high school game (or any other event) this Friday:
As you know Friday is Halloween. Please avoid working in any type of Halloween lead into your story.
They are tempting, they can even be cutesy But they are overdone, and often way too forced. So unless you are extremely talented, don't let your readers cringe at your work.

Thanks,
Schmoe

 

[Riptide]

'Tis the season!

 

[Starman]

throw out the record books in this rivalry

A tale of two halves

it was the best of times/worst of times

sweet revenge

we got no respect

weather cliches -- unless it was a REAL factor, nobody really cares

"The experts were wrong" -- Las Vegas doesn't pick HS games

 

[HejiraHenry]

Halloween reference is one of those "you get to do this once in a career, so make it count" things for me.

It does remind me that I need to caution our younger guys about that before Friday night.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

The Bum**** Giants tricked the Bumble**** Royals on Friday night and it was a treat for the fans ....

 

[Steak Snabler]

I once told a room full of stringers that if I got any Friday 13th ledes that night, they were all fired.

 

[Mystery Meat II]

This is one of those things that only we'd care about. Your average reader doesn't know or care how often you made a holiday reference in a lede unless you did it every day or they were keeping meticulous stats, in which case there's another problem.

I get not wanting to encourage lazy writing, but I don't think anyone who picks up the paper is going to be upset if they see a Halloween-themed lede on the story about the football game that took place on Halloween.

 

[Dick Whitman]

I kind of tend to agree with MM here, and that's a 180 degree change from how I felt about it when I was covering preps as a full-time gig.

Here's the thing: You may think it's trite. And you may think it appears in every story in the paper. But, meanwhile, the kids playing in the game think it's a big deal that the game's on Halloween. The fans think it's a big deal that the game's on Halloween. The school will think it's a big deal - "Monster Mash" and "Thriller" will be playing on stadium speakers everywhere tomorrow during warm-ups. And, finally, 90 percent of readers are going to read one game story from Friday night - theirs.

Who are we to ignore what, to the people involved and who care, feels like a big deal?

Same thing with Senior Night.

 

[User 11148]

Who are we to ignore what, to the people involved and who care, feels like a big deal?

Were I still a sports writer, here's how I'd answer your question ...

"We are the ones who are hoping to use this clip (and others) to get a job at which we don't have to cover high schools."

 

[29]

It's like 'the good, the bad and the ugly' — you get to use it once

 

[RecoveringJournalist]

It's like 'the good, the bad and the ugly' — you get to use it once

That's also the rule for the question lede.

 

[da man]

Who are we to ignore what, to the people involved and who care, feels like a big deal?

Were I still a sports writer, here's how I'd answer your question ...

"We are the ones who are hoping to use this clip (and others) to get a job at which we don't have to cover high schools."

Then that's up to you, isn't it?

 

[Riptide]

This is one of those things that only we'd care about. Your average reader doesn't know or care how often you made a holiday reference in a lede unless you did it every day or they were keeping meticulous stats, in which case there's another problem.

I get not wanting to encourage lazy writing, but I don't think anyone who picks up the paper is going to be upset if they see a Halloween-themed lede on the story about the football game that took place on Halloween.

Problem is, if you don't warn the writers off this stuff in advance, you're gonna get five or 10 or 20 different Halloween ledes throughout the paper.

And that **** gets old fast.

 

[Dick Whitman]

This is one of those things that only we'd care about. Your average reader doesn't know or care how often you made a holiday reference in a lede unless you did it every day or they were keeping meticulous stats, in which case there's another problem.

I get not wanting to encourage lazy writing, but I don't think anyone who picks up the paper is going to be upset if they see a Halloween-themed lede on the story about the football game that took place on Halloween.

Problem is, if you don't warn the writers off this stuff in advance, you're gonna get five or 10 or 20 different Halloween ledes throughout the paper.

And that **** gets old fast.

For who?

 

[Ace]

Nothing like having 10 Halloween or stormy night game stories on deadline.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Nothing like having 10 Halloween or stormy night game stories on deadline.

Each reader is likely going to read one of them.

 

[Batman]

I kind of tend to agree with MM here, and that's a 180 degree change from how I felt about it when I was covering preps as a full-time gig.

Here's the thing: You may think it's trite. And you may think it appears in every story in the paper. But, meanwhile, the kids playing in the game think it's a big deal that the game's on Halloween. The fans think it's a big deal that the game's on Halloween. The school will think it's a big deal - "Monster Mash" and "Thriller" will be playing on stadium speakers everywhere tomorrow during warm-ups. And, finally, 90 percent of readers are going to read one game story from Friday night - theirs.

Who are we to ignore what, to the people involved and who care, feels like a big deal?

Same thing with Senior Night.

It's senior night. Everybody has a senior night. It's not special.

Other than that, I agree with this. Don't force it, don't be overly cute, but lighten up and have some damn fun once in a while.

 

[Riptide]

This is one of those things that only we'd care about. Your average reader doesn't know or care how often you made a holiday reference in a lede unless you did it every day or they were keeping meticulous stats, in which case there's another problem.

I get not wanting to encourage lazy writing, but I don't think anyone who picks up the paper is going to be upset if they see a Halloween-themed lede on the story about the football game that took place on Halloween.

Problem is, if you don't warn the writers off this stuff in advance, you're gonna get five or 10 or 20 different Halloween ledes throughout the paper.

And that **** gets old fast.

For who?

For the readers.

 

[Starman]

Nothing like having 10 Halloween or stormy night game stories on deadline.

Each reader is likely going to read one of them.

No, every team over .500 or in any kind of playoff contention (which generally means the same thing) keeps track on how the other teams in its league are doing.

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

I think it would be funny to go the opposite direction - a mandate that every story in the paper have a halloween lead. Could be an interesting day on the wedding announcements page, but easy and insensitive in obits.