What exactly is management?

[Leaver?]

Interested to get other peoples views on this.
Is a Sports Editor management?
I mean most of those guys worked their way up through the newspaper and they tend to understand where reporters are coming from, but how do others view them, management or not?
What's it actually like being a Sports Editor, I'd imagine you could get squeezed from both ends?

 

[Chi City 81]

SEs are management. As are ASEs.

 

[Jeremy Goodwin]

I'd say if you have an E attached to your title you are management, but to what degree depends on your shop and the size. I'm sure some SEs have more pull than people with the same job at a different paper, but that all depends on how the ME or EE looks at sports and the section.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

I'd say if you have an E attached to your title you are management, but to what degree depends on your shop and the size. I'm sure some SEs have more pull than people with the same job at a different paper, but that all depends on how the ME or EE looks at sports and the section.

Copy editors usually are not management, though there are places that try to make them so they don't have to pay overtime.

 

[lono]

What is management? Ask Cindybj.

 

[HejiraHenry]

I am managing to continue to be employed as a sports editor, so I suppose you can say it's a management position in more than one sense.

Of course, I have held the S.E. title in shops with no other full-time sports personnel, which makes the management status rather problematic.

 

[Chi City 81]

I am managing to continue to be employed as a sports editor, so I suppose you can say it's a management position in more than one sense.

Of course, I have held the S.E. title in shops with no other full-time sports personnel, which makes the management status rather problematic.

Don't most states have a law prohibiting putting someone on salary unless they're directly in charge of X amount of people?

 

[PHINJ]

I'm in the management-without-staff class.

 

[spikechiquet]

I'm an SE, with a staff of .5 and some freelancers (and my boss stresses the word "free").

There are manager meetings on Monday at 8 a.m. Two years solid, never been asked to, or why I didn't, attend.

Hence, I'm not management.

 

[EE94]

I think most real definitions of management, in union shops, is someone who can hire and fire and make budgetary decisions.

 

[Moderator1]

When I was an assistant sports editor, I was not considered management.
When I was acting sports editor, I had management duties but not management pay/perks and had to go to someone else to do the things - signing off on expense reports, overtime, etc. - that a "real" manager could do.
When I became sports editor, Pinocchio became a real boy. Management pay, perks (such as they are which they really aren't), etc. They did away with assistant editors and went to deputy editors, who are considered management.

I originally thought this thread was more philosophical and my answer was going to be, "a major headache, pretty much every damn day!"

 

[Rex Harrison]

I would consider my former SE a supervisor, not a manager.

The difference I see is that a supervisor can do some tasks, such as give performance reviews, set schedules, etc., but has no control over hiring/firing and money. So the ME was a manager.

But that was just my experience.

 

[Moderator1]

I guess it is different. I had hire/fire/money authority.

 

[leo1]

I am managing to continue to be employed as a sports editor, so I suppose you can say it's a management position in more than one sense.

Of course, I have held the S.E. title in shops with no other full-time sports personnel, which makes the management status rather problematic.

Don't most states have a law prohibiting putting someone on salary unless they're directly in charge of X amount of people?

no

 

[BYH]

Incompetent.

 

[DougDascenzo]

If part of your job is managing people, I'd say you're a manager.

 

[friend of a friend]

where good journalism goes to die.

 

[budcrew08]

If part of your job is managing people, I'd say you're a manager.

Right answer. End of thread.

 

[NightOwl]

Management is great if you care about the people who work for you, and you know they will be happy and productive if you show them that you're involved in their goals and aspirations.


Management is bull**** if you're trying to prove that your paper is all about cranking out pages on a committee-inspired flow chart without acknowledging that it's a creative process first, a manufacturing process second. Anyone who can't understand that should go manufacture buttons or something. You can get cheap labor to push out buttons, and you won't have to worry about them getting creative or anything like that.

I love my job. But nobody wants it done first-class anymore.
I accept that my managers have given up, but that don't make it right.

 

[EE94]

I love my job. But nobody wants it done first-class anymore.
I accept that my managers have given up, but that don't make it right.

The sentiment - nobody wants it done first-class anymore - in my experience, means managers have said no when a reporter has proposed being sent to some far-flung destination for what might be an interesting feature.

Before everyone ****s on "managers", walk a few feet in their shoes.

Most managers don't say no because they want to. They say no because they have to.

On and on it goes up the chain and where it generally ends at the board level.

It's just a fact of life