Early deadlne-palooza!

[HejiraHenry]

Share your early deadline stories.

We're sending last page at 8 p.m. tonight (Sunday for Monday) due to threats of wintry weather ... perhaps 6-plus inches of snow forecast for North Mississippi.

A guy I know in Tuscaloosa says they're going at 6:30 p.m. due to concerns about ice.

How about you?

 

[Stitch]

We get moved to 10:30 p.m. if a severe winter storm comes through.

 

[crimsonace]

Heck, my local community paper (where I was once SE, long before this debacle started) has an 8 p.m. deadline EVERY NIGHT.

 

[golfnut8924]

When my old paper went to a regional copy desk, our deadline for Friday night football games was something like 10:30 -- or about 15 minutes after returning to the office from the game. Hell, what was the point of even going to the game then anyway?

Oh yeah, now I remember -- so we could put the full story on the web for free, after putting just the bare bones of it in the paper. Of course!

 

[Ice9]

Two years ago I covered a high school hockey game on a night when drop-dead was moved up to 9:45 pm due to daylight savings time. Sectional semifinal, started at 8. Sent a few graphs every goal and after every period. Game went into overtime, and ended five minutes after the deadline. Newspapers rule.

 

[e_bowker]

This past New Year's Eve we were supposed to have an 11 p.m. deadline. With bad weather forecast and it being a semi-holiday with only one semi-important thing to wait on (the Chick-fil-A Bowl), it was decided to bump the deadline up to 8.
Turned out to be a good move. At 8 p.m. we were in between storm systems, one of which produced an F2 tornado about 50 miles away, and the weather was clear. Around 11 p.m. another batch of storms rolled through and we were under a tornado warning.

 

[littlehurt98]

This past New Year's Eve we were bumped down to 10 p.m. I normally would not complain except every year this area has a huge basketball tournament. This year two local teams made it to the finals. Tipoff was scheduled for 9 p.m. but didn't start till about 9:30 due to the girls' final running long. So we had no mention of the boys game in the paper and we caught hell for it. Our publisher ask me what the problem and I told him the early deadline hurt us and when he asked who made that call I told him you did, before Christmas. Thankfully, I'm still employed.

 

[Stitch]

This past New Year's Eve we were bumped down to 10 p.m. I normally would not complain except every year this area has a huge basketball tournament. This year two local teams made it to the finals. Tipoff was scheduled for 9 p.m. but didn't start till about 9:30 due to the girls' final running long. So we had no mention of the boys game in the paper and we caught hell for it. Our publisher ask me what the problem and I told him the early deadline hurt us and when he asked who made that call I told him you did, before Christmas. Thankfully, I'm still employed.

Sounds like a peach of a boss to work for.

 

[SF_Express]

This past New Year's Eve we were bumped down to 10 p.m. I normally would not complain except every year this area has a huge basketball tournament. This year two local teams made it to the finals. Tipoff was scheduled for 9 p.m. but didn't start till about 9:30 due to the girls' final running long. So we had no mention of the boys game in the paper and we caught hell for it. Our publisher ask me what the problem and I told him the early deadline hurt us and when he asked who made that call I told him you did, before Christmas. Thankfully, I'm still employed.

Sounds like a peach of a boss to work for.

Well, based on that story, he actually might be decent if he A) didn't fire littlehurt and B) learned anything.

 

[NoOneLikesUs]

Last year during Feb. blizzard deadline was moved to 9:30 p.m. Only one prep game was on the slate that night and I had to cover it. Driving was dicey at best, but I got the game early before the snow really started coming down. Game got over at 9 p.m. Filed some game details and box via Blackberry. Called in quotes.

Probably 6 inches of snow on the car when I got out of there. Driving sucked hard, but there were no cars on the road so there was plenty of room for error.

 

[lesboulez]

three papers here. monday for tuesday deadlines willl be 3, 4 and 6. yipee!

 

[slappy4428]

Birmingham was going two hours early tonight, but that was as of Friday night. Don't know if that's changed.

 

[Pencil Dick]

Curious how Snowpocalypse 2011 is going to affect Alabama papers that have writers and columnists in Arizona covering AU-Oregon.

Tonight's game won't be over until at least 11 p.m. I would suspect that papers in B'ham, Montgomery, Mobile and Huntsvegas would normally have held until at least midnight or 12:30. Huntsville's supposedly getting a foot of snow and Montgomery's reportedly covered in ice. Gonna be chaos for sure.

 

[slappy4428]

Deliver the papers late; get THAT story in.

 

[slappy4428]

Of course, there's a hell frozen over story here too..

 

[Johnny Dangerously]

Tough one for papers with Auburn writers out there. On one hand, you have no control over the weather, and trucks and carriers have serious logistical concerns that aren't normally part of their schedules. You have to be concerned about their safety, as well as getting a paper to your customers at a somewhat reasonable hour. Very real concerns.

That said, you spend all that money to send your people out there, and you go to press early? Newspapers lost the war of timeliness to the Web a long time ago. People will be able to read Dodd, Forde, Mandel, Maisel, Feldman, etc., a couple of hours after the game. Delivering a newspaper the next morning with incomplete coverage of the most important Auburn game you've ever staffed seems a bit pointless.

What rotten timing for all involved. I hope it works out in the best way possible for everyone involved.

 

[slappy4428]

Tough one for papers with Auburn writers out there. On one hand, you have no control over the weather, and trucks and carriers have serious logistical concerns that aren't normally part of their schedules. You have to be concerned about their safety, as well as getting a paper to your customers at a somewhat reasonable hour. Very real concerns.

That said, you spend all that money to send your people out there, and you go to press early? Newspapers lost the war of timeliness to the Web a long time ago. People will be able to read Dodd, Forde, Mandel, Maisel, Feldman, etc., a couple of hours after the game. Delivering a newspaper the next morning with incomplete coverage of the most important Auburn game you've ever staffed seems a bit pointless.

What rotten timing for all involved. I hope it works out in the best way possible for everyone involved.

Not all involved. I can think of one little man out there that it couldn't happen to a better guy.

 

[Mark2010]

Curious how Snowpocalypse 2011 is going to affect Alabama papers that have writers and columnists in Arizona covering AU-Oregon.

Tonight's game won't be over until at least 11 p.m. I would suspect that papers in B'ham, Montgomery, Mobile and Huntsvegas would normally have held until at least midnight or 12:30. Huntsville's supposedly getting a foot of snow and Montgomery's reportedly covered in ice. Gonna be chaos for sure.

Aw, gotta love livin in Dixie.

 

[printdust]

We have a circulation manager who didn't realize we had had a professional basketball team in the area. He also didn't know for years that Friday night deadlines in football were later than normal. He raised hell to the publisher that we were always late on Fridays. Astonishingly when called on his ignorance, he survived to circulate another day.

 

[printdust]

Delivering a newspaper the next morning with incomplete coverage of the most important Auburn game you've ever staffed seems a bit pointless.

That has mattered little to most penny pushers for years.