Who here has mailed it in before?

[ColbertNation]

I did tonight. I don't know what happened. I went into work today with my usual amount of gusto, but somewhere around 7 or 8, that all went out the window. I tooled with my front for a while, but when I zoomed out, the whole thing looked like garbage. On almost any other night, I might have scrapped the whole thing and started over, but I just didn't have it in me tonight. It wasn't pretty, but it was serviceable, and tonight good enough was good enough.
Just wondering if anyone else here has had a similar night or if I'm the laziest paginator in the world. Writers should feel free to chime in on this as well.

 

[spaceman]

Don't sweat it. Everyone on this board has gone in the tank one night or another. Every single one of us.

 

[forever_town]

You are the laziest paginator in the world.

J/K. I'm sure we've all had those moments when good enough was good enough. Even though you know you could have put more into it.

I think that way about one of my stories in which I interviewed a state cabinet secretary. There's so much I wanted to do to make that story sing and it croaked like Roseanne during the national anthem.

 

[ColbertNation]

You are the laziest paginator in the world.

Well, that may very well be, but as long as it had no bearing on my night tonight, I think I'm OK with it.

 

[Batman]

Last year, soon-to-be ex-Ole Miss coach Ed Orgeron was talking to an alumni group here. One of our interns was coming to live with me for the summer, and he had gotten into town a couple hours before. On top of that, it was my last day of work before taking two weeks off for my wedding. I talked to Orgeron before the speech about a few things Ole Miss-related, put together a half-assed story and went off to help my new roommate settle in and prepare to become a groom. I didn't stick around for the speech.
I feel a little guilty (and lazy) about it, since it's the only time I've ever done something like that. Our news editor still makes the occasional snide remark about it. But any other night I'd have stuck around. There were just too many other things on my plate that night. The fact that that was the one time out of 100 that I left early allows me to sleep at night.

 

[didntdoit19]

Everybody's done it.

**** happens.

 

[Tom Petty]

****. i thought this was a thread about sex.

 

[beardpuller]

Anybody who says they never have is a complete liar, whether they did it intentionally or not...

That last point is the thing -- I've only come to the realization that I did a crappy, half-assed job in retrospect. I've never once willingly, intentionally done so. But yeah, if you're in any job long enough, it happens.

 

[Full of Shit]

C'mon, people, let's get with the times. The question should be "Who here has e-mailed it in?"

 

[PHINJ]

Every night my top priority is to make sure that I don't mail it in. In our late meetings we pick apart every page to try to make every element better, whether that means writing a better headline, subbing a story for a new quote, cropping a picture better, cleaning up a graphic, adding more info in a caption, etc.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

You certainly hope you never do it intentionally... Usually, it's something like, "Well, my flight was delayed and they only time I could file my follow was before the connection, so this was the best I could do in 45 minutes...

Or I was throwing up in the bathroom in between quarters, so this is the best you're going to get given the circumstances...

Or, Player X's agent called me back and halftime so I missed the entire third quarter as I was getting the trade specifics, so if something of importance happened in the third that's not in the box score or mentioned in the post-game presser, it won't be in my gamer either...

 

[black dude with pompano]

Or, I got really drunk the night before and could barely focus on the computer screen for most of the day.

 

[BigSleeper]

It happens. That's the beauty of this business: there's always another paper tomorrow.

However, if you work for a paper or chain that really doesn't give a **** about the quality of your work, it can be very easy to fall into a rut. I recall when I was first starting out at a Gannett paper that I soon learned couldn't care less what we did. I decided to test it and used the same design for my covers for a week straight. I just retrofitted the news for that day. No one said a word. Not a reader, not an editor, not a co-worker, nothing.

At first I thought it was funny, but it led to some short-lived depression, but I snapped out of it and decided I can only do the job how I feel it should be done. Thankfully, I no longer work for Gannett.

 

[Jeremy Goodwin]

mailing it in happens to the best of us. It just can't happen too often. But hey, we all have days we feel like **** or just aren't working fast, but have to get the paper out.

 

[budcrew08]

Every night my top priority is to make sure that I don't mail it in. In our late meetings we pick apart every page to try to make every element better, whether that means writing a better headline, subbing a story for a new quote, cropping a picture better, cleaning up a graphic, adding more info in a caption, etc.

Which is great, until you get fired for ****ing up a box score, right, JRC dude?


P.S. BigSleeper has it right.. there's always a paper tomorrow.

 

[Stone Cane]

i had a day on my beat recently where i felt like i mailed it in. wrote a one-source story -- which i never do -- that was mainly quotes, slapped on a lead, stuck in a few transitions, and called it a day. drove home feeling a little guilty about it

got two emails saying nice story

so who the hell knows

 

[Grimace]

Just out of curiosity, what does the term "mailed it in" signify? Why would that mean you did a half-assed job?

In the old days, did they mail something instead of hand delivering it or something?

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Anybody who says they never have is a complete liar, whether they did it intentionally or not...

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I had an editor early in my career who would say, "Looks like you sleepwalked through that one..."

Sometimes you're sick. Sometimes you're tired. Sometimes you've been working on something else and you don't have the time you usually do to pay attention to a game.

Not to use the worst cliche ever, but sometimes you don't have your "A-game"

When I'm most guilty of it is when other news is breaking. If there is a big trade that I have to cover, it's probably a safe bet my gamer isn't going to be what it usually is.

 

[Some Guy]

Yeah, obviously nobody goes into a day saying, "I think I'll turn in something really half-assed and ****ty today."

However, sometimes you can't help it. Most often it happens to me when I've just covered one game one night, and the next morning I have about an hour and a half to crank out the next game's advance before I have to catch a flight.