My First News Story In Seven Years

[Pete Incaviglia]

Well. Tonight I wrote my first news story in seven years. I'm scared as hell I screwed something up.

It was a city council/land development story. Big forum. Lots of good quotes. Lots of debate.

I think it reads okay. I filed it. Now I wait for my boss to give me **** or a reader or city official to ***** or point out an error.

This is the strangest feeling I've had in a long time in this business.

 

[Stitch]

Well. Tonight I wrote my first news story in seven years. I'm scared as hell I screwed something up.

It was a city council/land development story. Big forum. Lots of good quotes. Lots of debate.

I think it reads okay. I filed it. Now I wait for my boss to give me **** or a reader or city official to ***** or point out an error.

This is the strangest feeling I've had in a long time in this business.

There's always something for an official or reader to ***** at. Everyone claims they are quoted out of context, which is essentially true or you wouldn't have a story to write.

I hate the city council stories that just have tons of bullet points without any real meat to the story. You find a lede and go with it.

 

[slappy4428]

It's like covering a ball game.. two sides to an issue, both want to win, the debate is like the game play. One side wins, the other loses, you quote them both, call it a story. Oh, and youll cost some city council member a scholarship.

 

[crusoes]

The judiciary committee works just as hard as the finance, but you only cover them when their judges are in trouble.

 

[fishwrapper]

I'll get the "For the Record" ready...

 

[Pete Incaviglia]

Just found out my first story, which I thought was pretty good, was hacked. A lot. For, you guessed it, SPACE!

But, because I'm such a looser I was already posting extra quotes and notes to the paper's city council blog.

 

[spnited]

Was it hacked because they told you to write 12 inches then only had space for 8 or becuase the told you to write 12 and you wrote 17?

 

[I Should Coco]

Pete: A couple of tips for covering government meetings ...

1. Try your best, if it's your beat, to take an issue off the agenda and do up a juicy advancer a day or two before the meeting. It's just like with gamers ... get something unusual or interesting out in front of people, and they'll respond.

City officials and council members absolutely HATE when the public comes and dares to comment at their meeting, but as you indicated from tonight, public debate makes for a much more interesting story.

2. After sitting through too many two-hour debate about the size of signs and the lighting of parking lots, I learned to bring the comics section and crossword puzzle along. Good luck once the lawyers and planning code wonks start at each other.

Best of luck on the news side.

 

[thesnowman]

I remember being briefly shuttled over to news at a previous stop. I continued writing everything as though it was a sports story and ended up getting a few stories picked up nationally for the first time.

 

[Pete Incaviglia]

Was it hacked because they told you to write 12 inches then only had space for 8 or becuase the told you to write 12 and you wrote 17?

Honestly, I was told to write 500 words (we use word counts for whatever reason) and I wrote 511 — tsk, tsk, tsk, I know. But then it was hacked to 357.

Now, my other news story, which was still more sports than news but ran in A section, was left alone.

 

[forever_town]

The strange thing for me when I started at my last shop was the fact that I wasn't really nervous about writing a hard news piece for the first time in years. Even though it'd been several years since I'd written a hard news story for publication, I just went about it and wrote away.

Ask me to do a feature or a profile or something soft news, I get nervous. Ask me to cover a straight news story and I'll do it.

What's even stranger than not being nervous about my first hard news story was the fact that I didn't feel any nerves about covering my first-ever murder trial until AFTER it was over and the guy got sent to the pokey. While I was there, I was there to do a job. What was funny was the number of other press people there who asked my opinion about the proceedings during breaks in the trial.

 

[EE94]

Was it hacked because they told you to write 12 inches then only had space for 8 or becuase the told you to write 12 and you wrote 17?

Honestly, I was told to write 500 words (we use word counts for whatever reason) and I wrote 511 — tsk, tsk, tsk, I know. But then it was hacked to 357.

Now, my other news story, which was still more sports than news but ran in A section, was left alone.

where I worked, news stories were always getting hacked. It was not unusual for a reporter's entire day's work to be hacked into a two-paragraph brief. No ****.

The impression I got was that there was a bigger disconnect between the assigning editor and the page editor - basically two different staffs so story length requests weren't always respected

Also, because "News" is unscheduled, what seemed like a good story in the morning meeting is overtaken by more urgent news and becomes pretty irrelevant by evening

 

[mike_carrels]

I'm a current news editor after working in sports for many years and honestly, any sports reporter can do news. But hardly any news reporters can do sports.

 

[Batman]

I'm a current news editor after working in sports for many years and honestly, any sports reporter can do news. But hardly any news reporters can do sports.

I respect what news people do -- I sure as hell wouldn't want to track down a mother and father after their kid has just been killed in a wreck -- but I've always thought the same thing. Sports writers have to know a little of everything, from business to medicine to deciphering byzantine rules and regulations.
And if you think about it, turning around a Friday night football gamer is basically writing a breaking news story.

 

[buckweaver]

I'm a current news editor after working in sports for many years and honestly, any sports reporter can do news. But hardly any news reporters can do sports.

I hate ragging on newsies, since I'm one of them now and respect the hell out of what they do (the good ones, at least). But following a year on this side after seven years in sports ... I agree wholeheartedly.

Every week, there's somebody else freaking out -- granted, usually on day-side rather than the second-shifters -- because of some late story or late fix or late-breaking addition. I tell my night editor all the time when she apologizes for me having to blow up a page or story, "Hey, don't worry, I've dealt with a lot worse. Piece of cake."

 

[HorseWhipped]

I'm a current news editor after working in sports for many years and honestly, any sports reporter can do news. But hardly any news reporters can do sports.

I hate ragging on newsies, since I'm one of them now and respect the hell out of what they do (the good ones, at least). But following a year on this side after seven years in sports ... I agree wholeheartedly.

Every week, there's somebody else freaking out -- granted, usually on day-side rather than the second-shifters -- because of some late story or late fix or late-breaking addition. I tell my night editor all the time when she apologizes for me having to blow up a page or story, "Hey, don't worry, I've dealt with a lot worse. Piece of cake."

Agree with this also. We have newsies assigned to sports sometimes, and they can't hack it at all. They also call in sick a lot on their sports shifts, which tells you enough about their commitment to anything for the team.

Screw the newsies, we have learned to say.

We sure could use their help, but **** them if they can't saddle up.

We do agree that they are pussimous maximous, though.

 

[Football_Bat]

I'm a current news editor after working in sports for many years and honestly, any sports reporter can do news. But hardly any news reporters can do sports.

I respect what news people do -- I sure as hell wouldn't want to track down a mother and father after their kid has just been killed in a wreck -- but I've always thought the same thing. Sports writers have to know a little of everything, from business to medicine to deciphering byzantine rules and regulations.
And if you think about it, turning around a Friday night football gamer is basically writing a breaking news story.

Even in sports, in my time at my paper I've had to deal with the deaths of three college athletes and two high school athletes. So we still have to do that kind of dirty work. Our news side would've just taken the police report and topped it with a byline.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: News side people are sheep; we're goats.

(EDIT: Not meaning to paint all news siders negatively; but those with a sports background seem much better-rounded reporters.)

 

[thesnowman]

I think the vast majority of us here probably have a bit of an inherent bias toward our own kind. But I agree that many of the best news reporters I know do have some sort of sports background. Many news reporters I've worked with have even struggled to cover off for each other, never mind asking them to do sports.

 

[forever_town]

I'm a current news editor after working in sports for many years and honestly, any sports reporter can do news. But hardly any news reporters can do sports.

These days, sportswriters have to cover real news within the sports beat. Donté Stallworth's hitting and killing a pedestrian is basically a crime story within the sports beat. The machinations of salary caps and luxury taxes test the economic minds of the sportswriter. Covering a county council debate on a new stadium? They have the same arguments about schools and homeless shelters. And let's not forget about Michael Vick and his dogfighting case. Though to be fair, it's possible that cops and courts beat guys may have been assigned to that one. And stats? We have to have a head for numbers too.

Sportswriters may be derided for supposedly being part of the toy department, but they -- we -- have to master a number of areas that some newsies don't. It's a benefit if you can demonstrate that you can write about last night's game and the current murder trial. But most sportswriters should be able to demonstrate that without much effort.

 

[Pete Incaviglia]

Couldn't agree more FT. I recently wrote a budget story about the college athletic department I cover. Lots of numbers and percentages and cutbacks, etc. There was nothing "sporty" about it, other than the fact it was the athletic department's money.