Erie Times-News early deadline on H.S. football nights

[kimronspringle]

I was wondering if anyone could confirm a rumor I heard ... the Erie Times-News is now printed offsite and someone told me they have to be off the floor at 9:30 p.m. during high school football season. I can't imagine this is true. Can someone confirm or deny this?

 

[lone star scribe]

If it's true, they can run lots of halftime scores.

 

[Johnny Chase]

I freelanced for a paper that had a 10:30 deadline for stories, and I thought that was awful. If this is true, I would just put all the coverage online.

 

[Copyboy1967]

Not true. Our deadlines have been altered because of the company's decision to move to an off-site printer, but football Fridays will have a midnight press start. The earliest we're off the floor is 10:05 p.m. Saturdays because of the extra time needed to stuff and deliver the Sunday section.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

The last paper I freelanced for a few years ago changed its HS fball deadlines to 10 p.m. I was already thinking of dropping out, but that gave me a real excuse for doing it. Sports editor moved on a couple months later. Don't know what their situation is now, but that was just stupid. Most games I went to ended between 9:30 and 9:45, so the 10 p.m. deadline was ridiculous.

 

[HejiraHenry]

We start season with a midnight page deadline due to heat-related 7:30 p.m. kickoffs and mandated heat breaks.

Works OK.

We'll move that back to 11:45 in October.

 

[Football_Bat]

Some games are just entering the fourth quarter at 10 p.m. here, where everyone almost uniformly runs a spread offense.

Some schools have elected to move kickoff times back to 7 p.m. because games are running long.

 

[Simon]

Some games are just entering the fourth quarter at 10 p.m. here, where everyone almost uniformly runs a spread offense.

Some schools have elected to move kickoff times back to 7 p.m. because games are running long.

Someone needs to run the Veer offense and kick the living crap out of those wimpy spread teams.

 

[writingump]

You root for what I was lucky enough to have in my game last week -- a 35-0 shutout in which the clock ran continuously for the last 18:45. Over at 9:36, at a McDonald's less than 30 mins. later and out of there before the 11 p.m. deadline. I suspect I won't be that lucky every Friday night, but one can always hope.

 

[flexmaster33]

We're working with an 11 p.m. deadline.

Kickoffs used to be at 7:30 p.m. in our area (some still are at schools on the other side of town)...but our area schools shifted up to 7 p.m. starts about 5 years ago and that extra half-hour makes a world of difference.

 

[Spartan Squad]

We normally have a 10 p.m. deadline, but we will give some wiggle room during football. We usually just do a down-and-dirty gamer of about 250 words. We then follow up with an in-depth wrap up in the following edition. We've gotten the routine down to the point that it's hardly an issue.

 

[pressmurphy]

I'm hearing rumblings that the Utica, NY, Observer-Dispatch has 9:30ish deadlines this fall. I think they're printed down near Binghamton and need to be off the press before the more-local papers are serviced.

 

[farmerjerome]

I'm hearing rumblings that the Utica, NY, Observer-Dispatch has 9:30ish deadlines this fall. I think they're printed down near Binghamton and need to be off the press before the more-local papers are serviced.

Oh dear. That will be a problem if it's true. If they're not home and not playing rival Rome, the closest game is a good hour away in Syracuse. I know it's just a matter of finding a hotspot, but the teams that they'll be playing in Syracuse are in neighborhoods that you should really get out of after the game.

 

[pressmurphy]

I'm hearing rumblings that the Utica, NY, Observer-Dispatch has 9:30ish deadlines this fall. I think they're printed down near Binghamton and need to be off the press before the more-local papers are serviced.

Oh dear. That will be a problem if it's true. If they're not home and not playing rival Rome, the closest game is a good hour away in Syracuse. I know it's just a matter of finding a hotspot, but the teams that they'll be playing in Syracuse are in neighborhoods that you should really get out of after the game.

Yup. That's the Proctor scenario in a nutshell, and the deadlines don't make it any easier for the 6-8 other football schools in their proximity if they're playing on Friday nights.

 

[ScottJBryan]

Our deadline is 12:45 a.m. with a 1 a.m. press start. Family-owned newspaper that prints just one paper -- we live the good life.

 

[HanSenSE]

Last fall, after a lot of lobbying, they extended our deadline to 12:15 a.m. When football season ended, I mentioned to our EE that we could return to 11:15 if necessary, but she said no, keep it going. We were usually out by 11-11:30 anyway during hoops and spring sports, and usually within minutes of the last out being made in MLB in the summer. So one day the production manager sends the EE an e-mail wondering why we were still on fall deadline, to which I replied a) We're six weeks away from Friday Night Football, why switch just for a few weeks; and b) Check the logs and check with the paginator, we're kicking ass. Best e-mail I ever sent.

 

[That 1 Guy]

I feel spoiled now. My appx. 30K daily has a 1 a.m. deadline on Fridays. Most kickoffs are at 7:30. I wasn't able to get down to writing until 11:15 tonight, but still had plenty of time to beat deadline.

 

[KYSportsWriter]

This is why I'm glad we don't publish on Saturdays ...

 

[jr/shotglass]

We're 12:45 a.m. on Saturday morning (Friday night). And I couldn't imagine not having a Friday night football edition. I'd feel like I'd lost half my paper.

 

[apeman33]

Midnight Friday night deadline, kickoffs at 7 and the team at the main high school in the coverage area has been running split-back veer since 1993. Most games are over around 9:30. Even during the years when they have a decent throwing QB and pass more, most of the opponents haven't caught on to the spread offense yet and the two league opponents that have use it to widen running lanes more so than to throw.

This year, the juco decided to open football season on a Thursday night with a 7:00 kickoff. I knew I wouldn't be out of the stadium before 10:30 (and I was wrong, it was 10:15), so I told them I was shooting for midnight. Got done at 12:10.

Their response when I told them midnight was, "Yeah, OK. We can print one of the shoppers while we wait." At least the press room gets it.