Merry Christmas

[Mark2010]

Merry Christmas to friends and colleagues, especially those who happen to be working today at 7-day papers, websites and broadcast outlets.

I worked plenty of Christmases, and normally didn't object much. It was quiet. I was really good at advance planning, so I'd stash feature and enterprise stories in the weeks leading up to Christmas and pretty much knew what my section was going to look like. I often got most of my layout done a day or two early and almost never had to change it for breaking news. About the biggest breaking news I ever had on Christmas was when Billy Martin died (2003) or Urban Meyer announced his first retirement (2009). Could usually get the entire section done in 2-3 hours.

We'd often run local Athlete of the Year or Top Stories of the Year packages, so that they wouldn't get crowded out around New Year's with all the bowl games and holiday basketball tournaments and give us good local content.

Anyway, just wanted to give a shout out to those working today and remind them that their efforts and sacrifices do not go unnoticed or unappreciated.

 

[Matt Stephens]

And to you!

 

[spikechiquet]

I looked at our budget...and I am wondering how to fill 5 pages. But we'll figure it out.

Best of luck to all in getting all the news that fills...I mean fits!

 

[Mark2010]

Yeah, gotta plan in advance when you're working Christmas.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Billy Martin died in 1989.

 

[Mark2010]

Damn, I was way off. Remembered it was Christmas Eve, all the years run together.

Something happened in 03, now I just can't remember what it was. Oh, well.

 

[ColdCat]

you must have been thinking of former Massachusetts congressman Nicholas Mavroules
http://people.famouswhy.com/nicholas_mavroules/

 

[TigerVols]

Billy Martin died in 1989.

Aside of interest only to me: First time I ever laid eyes on Yankee Stadium, I flew up on Christmas Day to help my sister move from Dobb's Ferry, and as my brother-in-law drove me past, the digital billboard out front read, "RIP Billy Martin."

First I had learned of his death.

 

[spikechiquet]

Yeah, gotta plan in advance when you're working Christmas.

It's above my pay grade to plan. I just show up and put what the writers give me on the page. Today that means 1 college football feature, 1 notebook and a local hockey story. Yeah...that's not enough to fill 5 pages. God Bless the wires we have.

Got it done, of course...but it's ugly: a whole page of NBA games; a whole page of college football; a couple NFL features on another page. Luckily, had a lengthy weekly feature on the local hockey team that runs on Weds. to fill some space.

 

[Mark2010]

Hey, at least you HAVE writers contributing something. Too often, I got stuck with 5-6 empty pages and no local stuff, unless I insisted we planned something in advance. Calling someone at 5 pm Christmas night and yelling "Hey, where's my feature?" didn't help much....LOL.

Once I got a good centerpiece, I could cobble together the rest. One of my pet peeves was taking a routine regular-season NFL or NBA game and running 25 inches on it, whereas the previous night it might get 3 graphs in a roundup. I'd usually opt for some enterprise or feature piece or, in the case, of the NFL maybe a look-ahead. Especially in a market that doesn't have any pro teams.

 

[Matt Stephens]

I looked at our budget...and I am wondering how to fill 5 pages. But we'll figure it out.

Best of luck to all in getting all the news that fills...I mean fits!

Prep All-Area teams this week.

 

[Padre]

All-area teams in what sport? I had top 10 local stories, and for the first time since last Christmas, 3 separate NBA gamers with pics, plus a nice Jason Avant feature — even though this is Browns territory, "From gang member to man of Christ" fits like a glove here.

done by 10:30, almost 2 hrs. early

 

[Versatile]

At my old shop, which was not in an NBA market, we saved off-beat enterprise features for Thanksgiving and Christmas every year. That way the layout could be done in advance, and we'd have a solid centerpiece with a full page inside killed.

 

[Matt Stephens]

All-area teams in what sport? I had top 10 local stories, and for the first time since last Christmas, 3 separate NBA gamers with pics, plus a nice Jason Avant feature — even though this is Browns territory, "From gang member to man of Christ" fits like a glove here.

done by 10:30, almost 2 hrs. early

All fall stuff. Ran the four football features and 25-man roster in print today. Advanced it with a full-length show Friday as a cross promotion tool. Worked like a charm.

 

[Mark2010]

All-area teams are great. Depending where you are and when the season ends. If the season ends early November, that's a pretty lengthy hold. Which was why I was heavy on year-end stuff: top stories, athlete of the year, etc. It seems like everyone does them and trying to squeeze them the weekend of New Year's, on top of all the bowls, NFL, hockey and basketball got to be a hassle. So this worked perfect on both ends.

One place I went to visit relatives one year (late 90s) didn't even publish a Christmas Day edition. It was a pretty large town, state capital, major university city. But they ran a disclaimer "so our employees may celebrate the holidays with their family....". Well, I thought, nice idea, but if you are like me and hundreds of miles from home, it doesn't help much. And if family lives with you, you probably relish getting out of the house with something to do in the afternoon/evening anyway. It probably only helps if family is a 3-4 hour drive away.

But, on the other hand, how much demand is there for a paper on Christmas, anyway, unless you have heavy retail advertising for sales and such?

 

[MidwestSportsGuy]

"But, on the other hand, how much demand is there for a paper on Christmas, anyway, unless you have heavy retail advertising for sales and such?"

While laying out the section Monday night, this thought consumed me — but more so today (the 26th). At least for the Christmas Day paper I had a nice local "look-back" column from a guy who's been covering the big hockey team in town for more than three decades. But my coworker tasked with filling five pages for today's edition was in a no-win situation. One local holiday tournament preview story and the rest was wire and gigantic pictures to fill space. I thought he made it work, but I can't imagine anyone was falling over themselves to read today's sports section. It was "whatever it takes to fill space" at its finest.

I'd rather, for a day or two a year, put out no paper than a terrible one.

 

[Mark2010]

I would as well. I know a lot of places have reduced printing frequency in recent years. But I never said anything publicly because when people see you are not indispensable, they quickly learn to live without you.

Same for space. I would never complain about too much space for fear we'd get cut and then wouldn't have it when we needed it.

 

[KYSportsWriter]

We ran our All-Area football team Tuesday, so that took up a big chunk of the section. IIRC, there were only one or two other pages to fill. My boss and I came in around 11 that morning and finished at 2. Holiday deadline was something like 7:45 or 8:45.