Is your paper running an "April's Fool" story today?

[Oggiedoggie]

If so, are you full of shame.

Our section editor wouldn't stop one of our guest columnists from doing it.

I'm going to tell everyone I meet that I work for Wal-Mart.

 

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

No.
We have never done that.
At my last stop, the EE thought it was a good idea to run a dummy page 1 on April Fools Day. Bad. Bad Idea.


Dave Hickman, WVU writer/columnist for the Charleston Gazette does an annual April Fools Day column that is usually pretty entertaining.
http://wvgazette.com/Sports/DaveHickman/200803310685

 

[mike311gd]

No. Not intentionally, at least.

 

[forever_town]

No. Even if we published on April Fool's Day, I wouldn't allow us to run an April Fool's issue or story.

That kind of **** is barely passable for college papers. It doesn't fly for a professional newspaper.

 

[fishwrapper]

No. Even if we published on April Fool's Day...

Well, that's one way to avoid it. A bit extreme, don't you think?

 

[MTM]

Worked at paper that did A-1 April Fool's story. Hated it. I don't have a problem with an April Fool's column, however.

 

[Gomer]

My paper did one, though as usual I wasn't told about it. Found out when I opened the front page this morning.

We've bantered around some ideas for an April Fool's story in sports the last few years but never actually did one. Probably because we think it's kind of juvenile as well.

<b>Now, me as devil's advocate:</b>
You might not think it's professional,but why is it so wrong to entertain? As long as you say at the end of the story that it's an April Fool's Day joke and make no bones about that fact, isn't it no different than running a humour column?

The only thing is that if you're running a fake story right beside one of an actual tragedy or anything else that would look equally bad on the same page, you might want to forget about the fun story that day and save it for a year when it's a slower news day.

 

[Oggiedoggie]

My paper did one, though as usual I wasn't told about it. Found out when I opened the front page this morning.

We've bantered around some ideas for an April Fool's story in sports the last few years but never actually did one. Probably because we think it's kind of juvenile as well.

<b>Now, me as devil's advocate:</b>
You might not think it's professional,but why is it so wrong to entertain? As long as you say at the end of the story that it's an April Fool's Day joke and make no bones about that fact, isn't it no different than running a humour column?

The only thing is that if you're running a fake story right beside one of an actual tragedy or anything else that would look equally bad on the same page, you might want to forget about the fun story that day and save it for a year when it's a slower news day.

I don't think that readers enjoy being jerked around by their newspaper. We're supposed to be above that. Unfortunately, sometimes we're not.

 

[forever_town]

No. Even if we published on April Fool's Day...

Well, that's one way to avoid it. A bit extreme, don't you think?

Hehehe. We're a weekly, so we don't come up on April Fool's Day this year anyway.

 

[CentralIllinoisan]

No.
We have never done that.
At my last stop, the EE thought it was a good idea to run a dummy page 1 on April Fools Day. Bad. Bad Idea.


Dave Hickman, WVU writer/columnist for the Charleston Gazette does an annual April Fools Day column that is usually pretty entertaining.
http://wvgazette.com/Sports/DaveHickman/200803310685

Who's Rich Rodriguez Monday?

 

[friend of a friend]

No.
We have never done that.
At my last stop, the EE thought it was a good idea to run a dummy page 1 on April Fools Day. Bad. Bad Idea.


Dave Hickman, WVU writer/columnist for the Charleston Gazette does an annual April Fools Day column that is usually pretty entertaining.
http://wvgazette.com/Sports/DaveHickman/200803310685

Who's Rich Rodriguez Monday?

I believe that's Rick's boy.

 

[Steak Snabler]

Our annual April Fool's joke is to assume people think newspapers are still relevant ... oh wait, that's every day ...

 

[forever_town]

No.
We have never done that.
At my last stop, the EE thought it was a good idea to run a dummy page 1 on April Fools Day. Bad. Bad Idea.


Dave Hickman, WVU writer/columnist for the Charleston Gazette does an annual April Fools Day column that is usually pretty entertaining.
http://wvgazette.com/Sports/DaveHickman/200803310685

Who's Rich Rodriguez Monday?

I believe that's Rick's boy.

Welcome back Eric Byrnes!

 

[Diabeetus]

I hate ledes and the like, but the KC Star, a few years back now, did an April Fools story about Len Dawson coming back to compete for the Chiefs' quarterback job. (This was in the wake of Elvis Grbac leaving and before Trent Green came to town.) In fact, it might have been JoPo. I wish I could find a copy of it because it was done perfectly, and I cracked up reading it.

 

[playthrough]

I'd never say never as far as doing it, but it's gotta be damn good without making readers *really* think something is up, if that makes any sense. That Dawson thing sounds pretty good.

And if your April Fools' planning starts in January, you're a tool.

 

[Dick Pinchnickel]

Anybody remember Sidd Finch?

 

[Gomer]

Anybody remember Sidd Finch?

Anybody here heard of Sports Illustrated?

Sorry newbie. Beers. Pronto.

 

[deskslave]

I was amused by an ESPN The Magazine (yeah, yeah...I think the subscription was free or some such) story about Helio Castroneves being involved in racing cats up poles. It went on for a little while, and at the end, it pointed out that rearranging the letters in his name produces "Oh lie, cats never so." Not that hard to see, I guess, but still cool that someone noticed.

 

[RedSmithClone]

If so, you must be at a college paper still.

 

[crusoes]

When my paper was a biweekly, we did an April Fool's section. Clearly identified it as such. One story talked about a "robbery" at a Taco Bell in Podunk with an "artist's rendition of the suspect," which was a mugshot of my boss. Podunk police read the paper, had a good chuckle, then guffawed about people calling in saying they saw someone who looked like the "sketch."

Another story had our local three-sport star, who was a standout in football and baseball, opting to play basketball at Duke instead. He seemed to have a sense of humor about it.

It was good for a laugh, and people who actually looked at the "April Fool's Section" thought it was really funny.

We haven't done it since, a classic (and rare) case of quitting while ahead.