Pages in Sections

[TarHeelMan]

How many pages do most papers, 50,000 and under, get on a daily basis. What about Sunday?

 

[Decadent]

There should be a separate section from Sports. It would contain all the non-sports items that today's sportswriters deem to be worthy of Sports.

That way, those of us who just want to read about Sports could keep the Sports section and ditch the other section.

 

[TarHeelMan]

Most papers I have seen still have separate sports sections....

 

[Decadent]

Most papers I have seen still have separate sports sections....

Right. But more and more, those sections have many non-sports items in them. The sports editor and the M.E. aren't keeping those items out. That's why we need a separate section. It could be called Speech in Sports or Language Regulation in Sports or something like that.

 

[Colton]

We still have our own, stand-alone section on a daily basis. Ranges from 4-5 pages on an average day, with 5-7 on Sundays. For HS, FBC and NFL weekends, it's up to 8 pages for weekend and Monday editions.

 

[Decadent]

We still have our own, stand-alone section on a daily basis. Ranges from 4-5 pages on an average day, with 5-7 on Sundays. For HS, FBC and NFL weekends, it's up to 8 pages for weekend and Monday editions.

How much of it is truly sports?

 

[That 1 Guy]

We get 4 pages on Monday through Saturday (1 is devoted to agate), but it is usually paired with a business and/or weather page(s). We get our own 8-page section for Sundays.

 

[Decadent]

We get 4 pages on Monday through Saturday (1 is devoted to agate), but it is usually paired with a business and/or weather page(s). We get our own 8-page section for Sundays.

Is the stuff in the Sports section actually sports?

 

[That 1 Guy]

We get 4 pages on Monday through Saturday (1 is devoted to agate), but it is usually paired with a business and/or weather page(s). We get our own 8-page section for Sundays.

Is the stuff in the Sports section actually sports?

Meaning?
We had news take the Pistorius trial and other things like that. Otherwise we have room to cover our 25 or so area high school, 4 D-III colleges and the pro stuff and that's it.

 

[Decadent]

We get 4 pages on Monday through Saturday (1 is devoted to agate), but it is usually paired with a business and/or weather page(s). We get our own 8-page section for Sundays.

Is the stuff in the Sports section actually sports?

Meaning?
We had news take the Pistorius trial and other things like that. Otherwise we have room to cover our 25 or so area high school, 4 D-III colleges and the pro stuff and that's it.

Meaning there are a lot of speech code-type things in sports that shouldn't be there. The Sterling thing was big, but a lot of the other "analysis"-type things are just lazy pieces that shouldn't be in a Sports section.

 

[That 1 Guy]

We get 4 pages on Monday through Saturday (1 is devoted to agate), but it is usually paired with a business and/or weather page(s). We get our own 8-page section for Sundays.

Is the stuff in the Sports section actually sports?

Meaning?
We had news take the Pistorius trial and other things like that. Otherwise we have room to cover our 25 or so area high school, 4 D-III colleges and the pro stuff and that's it.

Meaning there are a lot of speech code-type things in sports that shouldn't be there. The Sterling thing was big, but a lot of the other "analysis"-type things are just lazy pieces that shouldn't be in a Sports section.

No. We'll run gamers and previews for sure, and then features on the weekends. But not a lot of analysis.

 

[Mark2010]

Most places I've worked were 4-6 pages on weekdays and usually 8 on weekends.

One place, I would email the exec editor and ad guys each Sunday night with a basic list of stuff I knew was coming up: games, enterprise stuff, previews, etc. It worked really well and they usually cooperated and we didn't get stuck short at times when we had a lot going on or planned something special. Likewise, when we didn't need the usual space (holiday break, summer, etc.) we'd tell them to cut back.

We didn't run a ton of analysis, preferring to use the space for game stories and features. I can see arguments both ways. One thing I am big on is consistency. If you don't believe you have adequate space to run a MLB/NHL/NBA roundup (or boxscores) every day, then don't do it just because you get some extra space one week. Drives readers nuts and creates expectations that you can't meet.

 

[spikechiquet]

Mon-Fri we usually have 5-6 pages.
Page 1 usually has 1 or 2 local stories (prep gamers, local pro team with local coverage or local D-I schools with our beat writers)
Page 2 is mostly secondary news (AP roundups or local notebooks) along with an archive look, TV guide and a "Coming Tomorrow" info box
Page 3 has some jumps and expanded coverage from the front (gamer jump with a notebook or the like)
Page 4 is the baseball page during MLB season
Page 5 is the agate page in a 5-page section or else a jump page/extra baseball page
Page 6 is agate if we have a 6th page

Friday's paper is 6-10 pages (depending on the season, more during the fall/winter with prep football/basketball)
Sunday's paper can be 10-14 pages. We put lots of national features from AP or MCT wires along with a large centerpiece story.

 

[Colton]

We get 4 pages on Monday through Saturday (1 is devoted to agate), but it is usually paired with a business and/or weather page(s). We get our own 8-page section for Sundays.

Is the stuff in the Sports section actually sports?

All of it.

 

[HejiraHenry]

(Speaking generally)

Monday: 4
Tuesday: 4
Wednesday: 6 with gusts up to 8 (includes syndicated NASCAR page, which usually sucks)
Thursday: 4
Friday: 6 to 8 (includes Outdoors page generated by trusted and excellent contractor)
Saturday: 4 to 8. depending on the time of year. College football preview gets its own section.
Sunday: 6 to 10, depending on time of year.

Every damn bit of it is sports.

 

[TarHeelMan]

I know it all depends on number of schools covered, etc. A lot of national sports is what mostly gets axed.

 

[Decadent]

I'm skeptical of some of these claims. The sports sections around here devote almost a page a day to non-sports, speech-code crap. Some of it is stuff stretched to the fourth degree of "Now so-and-so said THIS! about what the three previous so-and-so's said about that statement on Twitter 2 months ago!"

 

[29]

I'm skeptical of some of these claims. The sports sections around here devote almost a page a day to non-sports, speech-code crap. Some of it is stuff stretched to the fourth degree of "Now so-and-so said THIS! about what the three previous so-and-so's said about that statement on Twitter 2 months ago!"

I'm skeptical of this comment, once I figure out what it means. (and that's after your fourth version - maybe if you were more specific?)

 

[Decadent]

I'm skeptical of some of these claims. The sports sections around here devote almost a page a day to non-sports, speech-code crap. Some of it is stuff stretched to the fourth degree of "Now so-and-so said THIS! about what the three previous so-and-so's said about that statement on Twitter 2 months ago!"

I'm skeptical of this comment, once I figure out what it means. (and that's after your fourth version - maybe if you were more specific?)

Instead of more local coverage, one paper has two guys who basically watch televised sports and then nitpick on anything that violates their definition of speech.

We then see, every week, at least two editions with a good chunk of a page devoted to telling us which announcers/coaches/idiot players said something dumb. It is then compared to the Something Dumb from 6-9 months ago. Much analysis and ruminating follow.

Not Sports. Shouldn't be in Sports.

 

[BurnsWhenIPee]

I'd be interested in which paper has 2 guys who basically watch televised sports and then nitpick on anythng that violates their definition of speech.

I'm guessing this whole schtick is related to the Donald Sterling stuff, and you're saying he's a poor persecuted man who is getting the shaft.