Section size

[Frank_Ridgeway]

I should add that on that mid-major with the 21-column Tuesday sections, it wasn't a matter of cheapness, really. It was an excellent newspaper, arguably the best of its size in the nation at the time. But as Fishwrapper notes, you need to manage the newshole. They would suck back on space each day so they could have a good reserve each year to blow it out when news or projects demanded it. A couple times a year there would be a 40-page tab with no ads to display a major investigation. The philosophy was, would you rather run stories 20 percent longer each day or tighten the hell out of them so you could have maximum impact on the days you needed it most. A very tough place to work, but an extremely well-managed newsroom -- although I was too young at the time to always understand this.

 

[Bump_Wills]

One of the major papers I worked on had a tight newshole for its size, and as Frank says, that's when good editing has to come to the fore. We haggled over and massaged every inch of it, and while it was sometimes painful, I enjoyed that approach more than I did working at places where the space was more expansive. Shoveling it in rarely makes for a tight, crisp-reading section.

 

[shotglass]

I also think that sometimes, when you're met with ridiculous space limitations, you have to come to the ultimate conclusion that anything can be pitched completely if they squeeze you enough.

 

[Bump_Wills]

Indeed. Somewhere between the two ridiculous extremes is the place to be.

 

[Frank_Ridgeway]

When I interviewed for a job on the best newspaper I've worked on, I was at lunch with the SE and his deputy. The deputy, who was overall the best deskman I've seen, said, "Managing isn't just about people, you have to manage the resources, the space, just as well." And they did, they wasted nothing -- people or space. Just an incredibly efficient operation. There was a lot of journalism talent on that staff, but what allowed them to be as good as they were was extremely skilled management of manpower, budget and newshole, plus a knack for recruiting people who could handle that kind of workload and that kind of environment.

 

[Central-KY-Kid]

20K, six-day AM daily (no Saturday edition)
Close to two major D-I schools, but none of the four major (MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL) pro teams

Monday: 4 (six during NFL season)
Tuesday: 4 (six during prep football season)
Wednesday: 6 (NASCAR syndicated page)
Thursday: 6 (At least one full page of youth/rec/outdoors)
Friday: 6 (sometimes drops to 4 in summer depending on ads)
Sunday: 8-10 (occasionally 12)

 

[HejiraHenry]

Of course, the day after one of the tightest Monday papers we've seen – for a Sunday when we had a College World Series game – we have one of the biggest Tuesday papers I've seen this year and not a damned thing going on of importance.

 

[McNuggetsMan]

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.

The best is when they hand you one of those 10 page beauties on a Wednesday in the middle of the summer and they only put one tiny ad on page 6. If you are lucky, it's the week of the British Open or Wimbledon. If you aren't, you get stuck running a ****load of baseball and overblowing the Tour de France.

 

[EStreetJoe]

60k daily&Sunday (can't remember the exact circ. figures)

Monday - 8 pages
Tues-Sat. - 7 pages
Sun. - 12 pages

 

[John Newsom]

Here in Greensboro (90K daily, 110K or thereabouts Sunday)

Monday-Friday: 30-36 cols over 6 pages
Saturday: 40-42 cols over 7 or 8 pages
Sunday: 50 cols over 10 pages

Those are summer sizes. I expect (or hope, at least) they'll pick up in the fall, or at least go to the high side of the range.

We've lost space during the week because management is trying to use less paper. Instead of seeing the newshole (sportshole?) open up as the week goes on, it's shrinking. Recently it has been 35 cols on Tuesday, 33 cols on Wednesday and 30-31 on Thursday and Friday. (It's because the ad volume picks up, but we rarely get 2 extra pages.)

The thing that chaps me most about space is Monday - Sunday-for-Monday is our biggest day, especially in the fall because of NASCAR and the NFL (and MLB and college football folos and golf), but we can't seem to convince anyone else in the building that our Monday section is, you know, significant. Talk about jamming 10 pounds of taters into the proverbial 5-pound sack ...

 

[doctor x]

Stop me if you work at a small place and have heard this one:

Busy time of year: "We've got to tighten up and that's all there is to it."

Middle of freaking June: All the room in the world.

 

[ZummoSports]

I'm at an 11K daily and our page counts could be all over the place depending on how much space the powers that be want to give us. But I'll echo what Willie Butch said and put in that my shop is all over the place as well.

We never have less than 3, but sometimes we have up to 7. Those days are a lot of fun when you're using up every AP feature written that nobody cares about.

The only day we're constant is Sunday when we have four pages.

 

[Herky_Jerky]

30K circulation in Mid-Atlantic

Weekdays is generally 4-6 with the occasional full-page ad.

Saturdays is usually 6 and Sunday's is 8, with at least one page eaten up by an ad or sometimes Weather.

 

[Bob Slydell]

Our 10K is usually 4-6 pages dailty, 8-10 Sunday. Mostly filled with local each day.

 

[Rockbottom]

Sorry I am late to the party ...

35K that covers U. of Podunk ...

Daily: No less than 5, and no more than 8
Sunday: 8 (this time of year) to 12-16 (football season, depending on ad sales). We design a bunch of open-page packages during busy times, which is why we bump to 16 during football season if Ad Rep XYZ sold them some half-pagers.

rb

 

[Runaway Jim]

Seeing some of these responses really depresses me.

Mid-Atlantic state, 40K....

M - 5
T - 5 (but 1 page goes to Fishin' and Shootin' stuff)
W -5 (but 1 page goes to our Neighborhood Sports extravaganza)
Th - 6 or 7 (but 1 page is our NASCAR weekly)
F - 4
S - 4

That's during the spring/summer. Once schools let out we're OK, but I'm about ready to explode during spring sports playoff season, when I'm trying to wedge 50 pounds of crap into a 25-pound bag every day.

During football and the winter seasons they really splurge and give us an average of 5-6 per day during the week, and no less than 6 on a Saturday. My mind positively reels with all the extra space I have to fill.

 

[Bob Slydell]

Stop me if you work at a small place and have heard this one:

Busy time of year: "We've got to tighten up and that's all there is to it."

Middle of freaking June: All the room in the world.

You can always tell when we have a lot of space and nothing happening. We run gymnastics and soccer.