Section size

[Willie-Butch]

A discussion on the design thread got me thinking.....with the lack of interest in national news, especially for readers of small and mid-sized papers, are section sizes decreasing?

How many pages does your section average?

My shop is all over the place: 4 on Monday, 3 Tuesday, 5-6 Wednesday through Friday, 4 Saturday and 8 Sunday (10 during football season).

It's getting to the point where we either A) don't have enough room or B) have way too much room, meaning we're forced to throw in garbage national stuff that nobody cares about.

I'm interested to see how it works elsewhere.

 

[Chi City 81]

It's funny. My last paper (a 40K) averaged 8-10 pages per day. Never less than five, but up to 14.

Current paper (an 80K) averages about six per day. Never less than four, up to 10. Of course, it's summer and with our college extra section, the number will increase when football starts.

 

[Clever username]

We've gone from 8-10 for Sunday to 4-6. During the week we simply never know. We could get three pages with a big local event going and five with jack**** going on.

But as our EIC said, "No one gives a ****ass about national sports." Direct quote, I **** you not.

 

[Willie-Butch]

Damm, Doc. Those section sizes at your old shop are brutal.

I think I'd be happy if my shop gave us five pages during the week and 6 for Sunday, except during football season, in which case I could be happy with 8.

 

[In Cold Blood]

Ours is never the same, day to day or week to week... beginning of the week, 3-5 pages, thursday/friday, 4-6 pages, Saturday/Sunday, 6-8 pages...

 

[shotglass]

When we went from broadsheet to tab with sports, we were told we'd get (2x+2) pages per day. In other words, double the number of pages we got before, add two more, and you have it.

We've done a bit better than that, I think.

Daily averages:

Monday AM: 20
Tuesday: 24
Wednesday: 24
Thursday: 24
Friday: 24
Saturday: 28
Sunday: 40

We lose these pages right off the bat:

1. Cover
2. Fan Line and TV logs on Page 2 daily
3. Column on back page daily

 

[Songbird]

Weekly here ..

16 pages when I want that many.
12 is the norm.
8 as the seasons wind down.
6 between seasons
6 for the next few weeks so I can relax and catch my breath.

 

[sportschick]

During non-football seasons:

Monday-Wednesday and Friday -- 6

Thursday and Saturday -- 8

Sunday -- Between 6 and 10

Football season depends on what day the local college power plays, but generally

Friday -- 8

Saturday -- 8-10

Sunday 10-12

EDIT: 85K circ, FWIW

 

[amraeder]

Usually 3-5 during the week, every once in awhile we'll get screwed with 2 and EVERYONE calls and complains.
Our Saturday paper's usually about 6, and Sunday's in the 10-12 range.
Of course, what we get on a daily basis never has any correlation to what's going on in the sports world, so that keeps us on our toes.

 

[Breakyoself]

ours (40K) is between five and 8 most of the time.

 

[Keystone]

My 65K daily, 95K Sunday in the Northeast usually goes this way:

Monday -- 6-7
Tuesday -- 4-5
Wednesday -- 5-6
Thursday -- 8-9 (with summer golf section, 5-6 otherwise)
Friday -- 6-7 (includes syndicated That's Racin' page, a waste of money if you ask me.)
Saturday -- 4-5 (and no relief during prep football season )
Sunday -- 12-14

 

[TrooperBari]

Our section is fairly consistent -- one page Tuesday through Friday, two(ish) pages Saturday and Monday.

We've actually been encouraged to put more national stuff in the section, mostly because the state's Big Paper stopped delivering to the fringes of our coverage area.

 

[Football_Bat]

I'll echo Clever's sentiment. Not enough pages when we need them, then we'll get a whole open section the night after the MLB all-star game.

 

[pa writer]

I can echo some of the same sad stories already told. I remember the night of the NCAA basketball final a few years ago (I think it was the Duke vs. Arizona year) when I was given three -- yes three!!! -- pages because news took a bunch of our pages. Nothing I could do but put out as tight a section as possible.

 

[HejiraHenry]

Weekdays: 3 to 5 pages
Saturdays: 4 to 6
Sundays: 8 almost always

I generally regard section space as an issue like the weather. It's a condition I have to deal with regardless.

As with most of you, sections are tighter than they were a year ago – and far tighter than five years ago. And I almost always get the most space when I don't seem to need it.

I can go to the mat for more space, but I try to reserve that for really crucial situations.

 

[shotglass]

I can recall horror stories such as a Friday night around 1988 when we had 27 high-school football games AND the Olympics running live ... with a four-page section. That was a bit of a ****storm.

 

[chazp]

I can recall horror stories such as a Friday night around 1988 when we had 27 high-school football games AND the Olympics running live ... with a four-page section. That was a bit of a ****storm.

What did you do run 3-inch recaps of the football games?

 

[SCEditor]

16K daily.

Monday-Saturday: 3-5 pages. Usually four, occassionally 3 or 5.
Sunday: 8 pages. Hardly any ads. Up from six pages when I got here.

Starting in the fall once we're fully staffed and doing the things I want us to be doing locally (I've been on the job seven weeks), we'll bump up to 4-6 pages Monday-Saturday (typically it'll be five). Our two pages of stocks are going online, so those two pages become all mine.

Regardless, MLB blows out one page, our cover takes another page and our jumps/scoreboard/tv page knocks out another. On 3-page sections, we're tight. On our four-page sections, we're just right. With our five-page sections, we can be scrambling. If it wasn't for the AP advance features, we'd never get our Sunday paper out. But once we're fully staffed, things will change and we won't be so reliant on AP copy to fill our pages.

 

[Frank_Ridgeway]

Most papers I've been on, you don't measure by pages but by columns. You could have 60 columns over 12 pages (few ads) or 60 over 24 pages (lots of ads).

Biggest news hole I've dealt with was in the early 1990s when we averaged a bit more than 70 columns daily and 120 Sunday. That was a bear.

In the early 1980s I worked on a mid-major and sometimes Monday for Tuesday I would lay out a 21-column section. That was also a bear because it is a challenge to get everything in without looking like the classifieds. There was a heavy emphasis on editing.

Space is down just about everywhere, no doubt. I understand the economics, I just think that you reach a point that readers say, "Why bother?" At some point we're going to have to reassess our profit-margin expectations and give the readers more.

 

[fishwrapper]

"Pages" is a horrible way to measure the size of section.
Finding a section's "newshole" or "editorial columns" is the only accurate way.
In the last four years, I've seen our section decrease by 10 editorial pages (60 columns) a week.
Our weekly newshole, which can be adjusted for events or time of year, averages about 57-58 columns a day or about 400 columns a week.
Obviously, we're lighter on Tuesday papers and heavier on Sunday papers.

If you find yourself light one day, heavy on another day, it is time to adjust.
Find a weekly budget. Someone has one. Adjust size of section accordingly. It takes time. But, in a day where I count inches on pages, it is the only logical solution.