Will an NFL lockout affect your job?

[21]

Just looking ahead....if the league shuts down, how will it affect you professionally?

(Because, you know, no one cares about your fantasy team. 8) )

 

[lone star scribe]

Do I think newspaper management will use the lockout as a reason to pare more staff?

Of course not.

 

[Canuck Pappy]

Covering the NFL is a 12 month job, with the Super Bowl going into February, the combine, the draft, free agents, mini camp, training camp, exhibition and games from Sept. to January.
Not sure if it was this way 10 years ago, but now it never stops.
Other beats have a month where it's pretty dead. Not so with NFL.
For a lot of people they will now be able to take vacation that they have been putting off.

 

[podunk press]

I have a hunch that a few sports editors at smaller circulation newspapers will be taking their NFL guys and having them answer the phones and cover prep gamers.

 

[YGBFKM]

This could be the most productive fall of my adult life.

 

[Knighthawk]

It will cripple me financially this fall, and if there's also an NBA lockout, I'll be in a different line of work by Halloween.

 

[apeman33]

Zip. One-man show at a tiny hyperlocal daily with no Monday edition. I only run NFL when it relates to the Chiefs and then I use AP.

 

[imjustagirl]

It will make NASCAR happy, which will mean they will jump our **** less. So I'm pulling for a lockout.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

A week ago I would have said we'll definitely have an abbreviated season. Now, I think they're making progress thanks to that court's ruling.

 

[Double Down]

I would have to cover more godawful college football games.

 

[Kid Presentable]

I'll have to cover a lockout instead of an NFL season. But editors will definitely find ways to keep reporters busy.

 

[lone star scribe]

I'll have to cover a lockout instead of an NFL season. But editors will definitely find ways to keep reporters busy.

I know editors can find ways to keep reporters busy. But will MEs, executive editors and publishers see it the same way? We went down this road several years ago with the NHL lockout, and guess what? We lost a hockey writer position.

 

[Some Guy]

I know less about the NFL labor relations than I do the NBA. However, based on what I've read and heard, I don't *really* buy the NFL is going to miss any games. I think cooler heads will prevail.

I think the financial situation is substantially more dire in the NBA, which means I think a lockout of some length is a given.

 

[shockey]

i'm sure it will not effect my former shop; major metros still require their nfl beat people. and there will be plenty of lockout-related stories for quite a while should this lockout take hold through the summer. plus there are plenty of other beats to help out on, feature/takeout pieces to work on, other assorted ways to get a 40-hour week out of people.

of course, if a paper is looking for an excuse to cut its staff this could be one. others more familiar with how smaller shops work would have better insight tham i.

 

[Mark2010]

Not one bit. It will, however open up 1 3/4 pages in the Monday edition that normally gets devoted to NFL stories and summaries (agate).

 

[SF_Express]

Not one bit. It will, however open up 1 3/4 pages in the Monday edition that normally gets devoted to NFL stories and summaries (agate).

Mark, I don't know you or your place, but are you really sure they're going to give you that space and not take it right out of the paper until there's a settlement?

 

[Simon]

Our town hosts a training camp so it could not only affect what I do but it could really hurt the local economy. A lot of the budgets were made my idiot politicians who thought there would be for sure an NFL training camp. Even if the lockout goes just into September, we'll lose all of that money.

 

[John]

I'll have to write about how it affects the kids that I cover who are headed to the NFL, but that's about it.

And since I don't really have much interest in the NFL, it won't affect me personally at all.

 

[hondo]

I have a hunch that a few sports editors at smaller circulation newspapers will be taking their NFL guys and having them answer the phones and cover prep gamers.

I'd pay money to see the looks on some of those faces when they're told they're covering Podunk High vs. Bum**** Prep that Friday night.

 

[Mark2010]

Not one bit. It will, however open up 1 3/4 pages in the Monday edition that normally gets devoted to NFL stories and summaries (agate).

Mark, I don't know you or your place, but are you really sure they're going to give you that space and not take it right out of the paper until there's a settlement?

As long as we have a Monday paper, space is not going to change: four pages, usually open. Doesn't matter if it's September with a million things happening or July with nothing happening. It's up to me as to what to fill it with. So no NFL = more space for other stuff.