WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE?

[PalmettoStatesport]

I've just spent the last two hours typing in kids names from our statewide YMCA swim meet. Obviously the story is extremely long with a bunch of names and where they finished.
Anything you would've done differently? I am open to any suggestions.

 

[TwoGloves]

That's what agate is for.

 

[PalmettoStatesport]

I'm at a small weekly (three times a week) with just a page and a half for sports.

 

[PeteyPirate]

I can't speak for anyone else, but I might have swallowed a revolver rather than typing in a YMCA swim meet.

 

[leo1]

DID YOU TYPE THE NAMES IN ALL CAPS?

 

[PalmettoStatesport]

My thoughts exactly FirstDownPirates, but a lot of their parents are big time advertisers.

 

[Mystery_Meat]

Then you should only include the advertisers' kids in the story. Then run a house ad saying the only way you'll run a story about someone is if their parents buy an ad. Maybe work up some rate cards (quarter-page ad = 8-inch story, full back-page ad = 40-inch opus declaring Jenny Volleyball the new messiah). Hell, the ad people want us to treat newshole like that indirectly, might as well drop the pretense and sell out to the highest bidder. But make sure you get a share of the commission.

 

[Hank_Scorpio]

Write a normal story as you would, best team, best player,etc.


Then just add the agate results at the bottom of the story. Reduce the type slightly from the copy type, to make sure the story gets more prominence.



As far as the parents being big time advertisers, since it is a smaller town, they likely need the paper as much as the paper needs them.

Even if they stop advertising for a week, anyone with smart business sense won't let something like this stand in the way of their business. And if they do, you get to write a business closing story in a few months.

 

[OneMoreRead]

Hell, it's 2006.

Don't the YMCAs have computer's these days? Couldn't they email you the results?

 

[Chi City 81]

Hell, it's 2006.

Don't the YMCAs have computer's these days? Couldn't they email you the results?

Even if they did, I'm sure it would have been coded incorrectly, e.g. names in all caps, last names first, age, sex, etc.

 

[Hank_Scorpio]

Palmetto,

Don't you have a clerk that could have done the typing? Even at the smallest paper I've worked at (9K daily), we had someone who would type in briefs and stuff like that.

She wasn't a journalism person, but someone who could type and knew how to spell, so she would do that type of stuff and then proofread pages before being sent to print.

 

[EE94]

write the story based on the best angle - kid winning or whatever - and run the names of all participants (if you must, which is what it sounds like) in an agate box beside the story.
For your own sake, don't fill up a story with what is essentially agate.
And don't write for advertisers. Write it for your readers, and satisfy the advertising obligation with the agate chart.

 

[spaceman]

I'd annex the Sudetenland.

 

[Chi City 81]

I'd annex the Sudetenland.

In need of some lebensraum, spaceman?

 

[spaceman]

ja wohl, herr doktor

 

[DyePack]

I'd annex the Sudetenland.

I usually try to pick off poorly armed countries, even if they aren't in my intended sphere of influence.

Then I use one country to go on a rampage.

I always try to keep a buffer of two players around my countries so they can beat each other's brains in.

 

[shotglass]

I'm at a small weekly (three times a week) with just a page and a half for sports.

Well, you just provided the No. 1, dead lock bolt reason why you WOULD do it as agate.

If you think it's a must for the community, write a 12" story for the cover, and then do the agate on the second page.

 

[RedCanuck]

I have a slightly larger section than palmetto and no clerk to type in things sent to me, it's all done by myself. I agree with the suggestions here, build your section so that there is room for agate and use it. People like to read names and it cuts down on the droning on and on you have to do.

Your job is simple, write the clearest, most interesting feature on the event, focusing on the winners or the locals, dump the rest in agate, and if you have photography, run a lot and run it big. That's what works.

 

[Tom Petty]

I have a slightly larger section than palmetto and no clerk to type in things sent to me,  it's all done by myself.  I agree with the suggestions here, build your section so that there is room for agate and use it.   People like to read names and it cuts down on the droning on and on you have to do. 

Your job is simple, write the clearest, most interesting feature on the event, focusing on the winners or the locals, dump the rest in agate, and if you have photography, run a lot and run it big.  That's what works.

despite what the ****s in circuation told you, no, no, people don't like to read names, which is why you don't read the white pages until you fall asleep at night. if it were that ****ing easy we'd print the phone book, run the mugs we have with names and we'd all be out of work in a week or so.

people like reading names ... ****, grow some ****ing balls.

 

[BYH]

Palmetto,

Don't you have a clerk that could have done the typing? Even at the smallest paper I've worked at (9K daily), we had someone who would type in briefs and stuff like that.

Spoken like someone who's never worked for a JRC paper. :-\