So how's your tab coming?

[joe_schmoe]

Our tab size stayed the same, though copy-wise we picked up about an extra 50 inches or so, due to a couple less ads (a couple of mainstay ad buyers closed shop this year --- one because the old lady retired and didn't want wnayone taking over).
3 sections, printing Friday, Sat Sunday I think. They run next week Thurs, Fri, Sat.
I have all my info, quotes and ideas. I have written five stories for it, have 7 more to go. Copy dedline is about 36 hours away.

 

[BigJim5190]

I must have been drinking, but I pushed for a 12-page tab with capsules on 60 prep teams and six feature stories and one cover story to be blown out into a 30-page preview with articles on every team and all that good stuff. Don't know if they can sell it, but I'm not going to let the ineptness of the ad staff dictate how much heart and soul I pour into my product.

Of course, I get all this pushed through and I'm raring to go since Aug. 1... but practices don't start for another week and most of the coaches I talk to are like, "Well, gee, I don't know who my QB is yet, we haven't been on the field yet."

Add to that the pub date is going to be the second Sunday in September, I have like four days of practice to pull it all together.

So basically, while I told them I could do a "Bobby McGee and Joe Schmoe will compete for the QB1 spot," I have a feeling I'm going to be making a lot of phone calls in a four-day period.

I still wouldn't trade it for anything else.

 

[apeman33]

We usually have 12 pages (there's only four high schools in our coverage area). This year other projects that have normally been tabs have been turned into two- or four-page sections within the daily itself. Not enough ad sales.

Hopefully, the football tab will be different. First, we have two new ad reps. One's been in the business before and the other already seems to be better than some of the people we've had here since January. The question, I suppose, is will they have enough time to sell it since both of them are new and don't have regular contacts yet.

If they can't sell it, I'm not sure if I would put in one team's preview each day the week before the openers or try to do two or three extra pages in the daily. At least one would have to go in a day early because they open on a Thursday.

 

[pressboxer]

Ours came in at 120+ pages (I have no idea what the actual count is, not my department). All the copy was done two weeks ago. Last weekend was spent proofing. The inside half was printed today with the rest to roll tomorrow. It hits the stands this Sunday, the last one before the season kicks off.

 

[schiezainc]

Ours came in at 120+ pages (I have no idea what the actual count is, not my department). All the copy was done two weeks ago. Last weekend was spent proofing. The inside half was printed today with the rest to roll tomorrow. It hits the stands this Sunday, the last one before the season kicks off.

Jesus Christ. How do you fill 120 pages?

 

[EE94]

Ours came in at 120+ pages (I have no idea what the actual count is, not my department). All the copy was done two weeks ago. Last weekend was spent proofing. The inside half was printed today with the rest to roll tomorrow. It hits the stands this Sunday, the last one before the season kicks off.

Jesus Christ. How do you fill 120 pages?

who would possibly want to read 120 pages?

As the new ESPN ombud said, isn't that why God invented editors? To sort the wheat from the chaff, rather than throwing everything into a bin and hoping it turns into bread

 

[apeman33]

Just heard from the head of ad sales. Sounds like no tab this year due to poor sales. It may end up being four pages at regular size in the regular edition. They'll probably be in the middle so readers can pull them out.

 

[pressboxer]

We cover about 75 high schools and six colleges. It tends to add up.

Last year's tab was 144 pages because we included some NFL and D-I college (there's a possibility that the three big state schools could all start quarterbacks from our coverage area this year).

 

[Den1983]

I was just told that our tab, which goes to press next Thursday, will be as many as 12 pages. That's half of what it was last year.

I was also told that it's possible there are as few as eight.

We cover 10 teams, seven local and three area. No matter which way, coverage in this year's tab will be tight.

 

[FuturaBold]

We hustled together a 16-page tab for our five high schools in about a week and a half (after me thinking most of the summer that we might not have one at all) ... I feel pretty good about it overall, considering our biggest football tabs traditionally have been 20 to 24 pages ... our ad staff really got after it in the short amount of time, exceeding goals, which was nice ...

 

[BigJim5190]

Anyone putting together a tab trade this year? I loved how it worked out last year. I loved stealing looking at how each paper was laid out and what content they used.

 

[JakeandElwood]

How's yours coming along, bumpy?

 

[pressboxer]

Anyone putting together a tab trade this year? I loved how it worked out last year. I loved stealing looking at how each paper was laid out and what content they used.

http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/72423/

 

[redsox99]

Our deadline is tomorrow and again our ad staff appears to have topped their sales goal for the fifth straight year since I've been here with more than 2,000 inches. We do a broadsheet 4-section run. Generally it's 48 pages (12-12-12-12). We slightly tweaked our format this year because of fewer reporters. We did not do big features on each of the 4A and smaller schools, but instead did gigantic breakouts, notes, rosters, projected starting lineups, etc. We still got team photos of every team (22) in the section and we still take mugs of every player on the varsity for use throughout the season (and for those who get arrested for DUI in a couple of years). If anyone wants a copy of the section, I'd love to do an exchange. Just PM me and we'll get one mailed to you after it prints next Thursday night. Publication date for ours is the 30th.

 

[NightHawk112005]

My deadline for copy is tomorrow and I have to have as many as 17 schools covered (since we're still not sure one will play). It's not easy, but it's coming okay.

 

[BigJim5190]

Thanks pressboxer, I totally whiffed on seeing that thread.

 

[Highway 101]

I can take little credit for these:

An 80-page Prep Tab published last Sunday.
A 40-page College Tab that comes out soon.

We gotta play 'em one day at a time.
I'm just happy to be here. Hope I can help the ballclub.
I just want to give it my best shot, and the good Lord willing, things will work out.

I simply helped the ballclub, as did everybody else.

 

[bumpy mcgee]

I'm feeling positive about ours. Print deadline is Tuesday at 5, would love to have all the writing and photos done by this Saturday so Sunday and Monday can be design and proof days. We're just a few stories shy of putting everything on the pages and seeing what sticks.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

Our tab is 20 pages smaller than last year, 144 pages this season. Ads are about 60-40, but the ad dept is rumored to have practically given them away ....
Tab prints Tuesday, had done it as a stitch n' trim job in the past, regular tab production this year... Comes out the day of kickoff.

 

[YankeessSuck]

Good news for us. We bumped up in pages and sold way more ads than we have the previous two years. Most of them were full page ads. Don't know how much they charged for them, but if it wasn't dirt cheap, major props to our ad folks.

Will wrap it on Friday and print next week. Thank God it and the college tab is done.