Olympic Coverage

[Drip]

This is a two parter
On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate AP's Olympic coverage?
If your paper is covering it, how would you rate how your paper is doing?

 

[jr/shotglass]

3.

If only for the fact that I seriously question whether anybody is running 81-inch Olympic roundups and 53 inches on the swimming alone. I don't quite get why they would not understand that.

I don't mind editing stuff down, but that's ridiculous.

As for us, we're doing a four-page daily pullout in the tabloid, complete agate on the fourth page. And we have a Penn State student writing live on the field hockey, which has loads of Pennsylvania connections, including the starting goalie being local.

We're doing OK, I guess. I hope we are.

 

[HejiraHenry]

I'll give them a 5, which is about halfway between the 10 they get for being everywhere and the very low grade I would give them for not making it that easy to get your hands around everything.

I'm especially unhappy with the "lookahead" piece that runs each day. Two of the last three days, it's been about beach volleyball. That's not particularly useful.

I'd hesitate to grade what we're doing, but I think our readers are pretty well served. It's a full inside page each day and we'll front some select things as events warrant. There's a rail with TV listings, a "must watch" thing cribbed from Miami via MCT, a top strip, centerpiece and a 15-inch roundup. I'll work it myself every day, but even on the days I'm supposed to be off it won't be that hard to amble in at 5 p.m. and knock it our pretty quickly.

We'll have a handful of track athletes, including a gold favorite, and that's where the Olympics is most likely to break out front for us - we have football practice starting this week, so that will tend to dominate the conversation.

 

[Mark2010]

3.

If only for the fact that I seriously question whether anybody is running 81-inch Olympic roundups and 53 inches on the swimming alone. I don't quite get why they would not understand that.

I don't mind editing stuff down, but that's ridiculous.

As for us, we're doing a four-page daily pullout in the tabloid, complete agate on the fourth page. And we have a Penn State student writing live on the field hockey, which has loads of Pennsylvania connections, including the starting goalie being local.

We're doing OK, I guess. I hope we are.

That's awesome. Good job.

 

[steveu]

I thought AP knew what it was doing. <crossthread>

So far, I've done more watching than reading, to be honest. I'll have to take a look at what's been written.

 

[fishwrapper]

3.

If only for the fact that I seriously question whether anybody is running 81-inch Olympic roundups and 53 inches on the swimming alone. I don't quite get why they would not understand that.

I don't mind editing stuff down, but that's ridiculous.

That's awesome. Good job.

Not to be contrarian, but..:

Newspapers aren't the only entities publishing the content.

To the point, newspapers also have the option of running the longer roundup on the website and an abbreviated version for print (I realize staffing concerns).

But, it's impossible for AP to know your needs (which change on a daily/hourly basis), because they are servicing everyone from 5k dailies to espn.com and yahoo.com.

 

[jr/shotglass]

I suppose. But there's also the point that even on websites, people are not wading through an 81-inch roundup. And after 800 words or so, it tends to be rejected by search engines, too.

 

[fishwrapper]

Oh ... I certainly know and understand your point.
At some juncture it's too much and becomes unwieldy and considerably more work for all involved (except for AP for just appending one file and not offering optional trims).

 

[HanSenSE]

Oh ... I certainly know and understand your point.
At some juncture it's too much and becomes unwieldy and considerably more work for all involved (except for AP for just appending one file and not offering optional trims).

Maybe its, thanks to the ol' inverted pyramid, AP trusts you to cut at your own whims?

 

[Tarheel316]

Inverted pyramid. Now we need a reference to the proportion wheel. I still have one on my desk as kind of a souvenir.

 

[da man]

Inverted pyramid. Now we need a reference to the proportion wheel. I still have one on my desk as kind of a souvenir.

I see your proportion wheel and raise you a

 

[jr/shotglass]

Best damn back-scratcher in the universe.

And you haven't lived until you've had an X-acto knife thrown at your head by an angry composing-room guy.

 

[Drip]

Best damn back-scratcher in the universe.

And you haven't lived until you've had an X-acto knife thrown at your head by an angry composing-room guy.

I hear ya. That same ****er got his ass kicked in the parking lot as soon as the shift was over. He stopped throwing X-acto knives after that.

 

[Cosmo]

I've heard Harrisburg is a great town in which to get your ass kicked.

 

[jr/shotglass]

Only with X-acto knives.

 

[Drip]

I've heard Harrisburg is a great town in which to get your ass kicked.

I've heard Harrisburg is a great town in which to get your ass kicked.

I wouldn't say a great town to get your ass kicked but the locals will definitely oblige.

 

[Mark2010]

Inverted pyramid. Now we need a reference to the proportion wheel. I still have one on my desk as kind of a souvenir.

I see your proportion wheel and raise you a

Aw, the good ole days.

 

[fishwrapper]

I spent about the first eight years of my career on the composing room floor making sure my marked dummies were followed and type was placed straight (and without finger and thumb prints everywhere). 2-3 hours a night, every night. Some of the best conversations I've had in the business happened on the composing room floor. Some of the best lessons in work ethic were learned there. Not to mention the countless stands of .5 pt and 1 pt hairline rules brought home on the bottom of my shoes (only to be found a week later in the corner of the bedroom).

 

[jr/shotglass]

I have some fond memories of those days. I was also tickled pink when I figured out, pre-pagination, how to send my stories in modular blocks so they could just be laid on the page as a whole. And I didn't have to spend three hours a night down there.

(Talk about a thread-jack. )

 

[Drip]

I spent about the first eight years of my career on the composing room floor making sure my marked dummies were followed and type was placed straight (and without finger and thumb prints everywhere). 2-3 hours a night, every night. Some of the best conversations I've had in the business happened on the composing room floor. Some of the best lessons in work ethic were learned there. Not to mention the countless stands of .5 pt and 1 pt hairline rules brought home on the bottom of my shoes (only to be found a week later in the corner of the bedroom).

I have some fond memories of those days. I was also tickled pink when I figured out, pre-pagination, how to send my stories in modular blocks so they could just be laid on the page as a whole. And I didn't have to spend three hours a night down there.

(Talk about a thread-jack. )

I recall in my youth making a big mistake and catchingit on the composing room floor just as the page was about to be sent. WHEW!!!!!!!!