Football tabs

Can't argue with this. Probably one of the most read things of the year, I would bet. 50 inches seems a bit excessive and unnecessary, but at least you're giving the readers something worthwhile.

 

A 50-inch preview? Are you trying to outdo Wyatt Earp or something?

 

Trolling? Gotta be trolling, or at the very least sarcastic, right?

 

I bet that's a helluva tab, JJH. Wish I had that kind of space.

 

I have to admit it is a pretty solid product and is well-received not to mention the paper's biggest money-maker of the year...just wears me to the bone trying to put it all together practically single-handedly and trying to deal with day-to-day stuff too.
The biggest problem is fighting all of the schools (ADs, coaches, band directors, etc.) in putting together photo days because they never work out and I'm constantly rescheduling, reshuffling, etc.
That, plus they usually don't even finalize the layouts until about 4 days before the thing is to print, so putting out 112 pages in that amount of time (again, working around daily stuff) is taxing...lol.

 

So you really didn't mean to use the blue font, JJH?
If that's the case, how in the holy fuck do you write a 50-inch preview story and make it readable? Much like Ron Burgundy finding out Baxter had eaten an entire wedge of cheese, I'm not even mad. I'm impressed.
I might write four or five 50-inch feature stories a year, and I've sometimes been accused of having word processor incontinence. How do you stretch out something as mundane as a preview story, even with a feature angle, to 50 inches and have anything worth a crap left in the hopper for the rest of the magazine? Having 50 inches of copy (which is two or three decent-sized stories) per school is reasonable, but 50 inches for the preview alone?
Do you just end up listing names in the story, like Cletus rattling off the roster of his kids?

 

The tab printed Tuesday. Except that this year, it's not a tab. It's an eight-page B Section. Why? Because tabs cost more to produce due to the "changes you have to make to the press" (their words).

Eight pages. Not including the cover and agate page (last year's standings, this year's schedules, district assignments and the like), that's six full-size pages for two schools. And then the person who was supposed to drop the ads on the page was sick for three days, so I had to decide where all the ads (30 of them) went and put them on the pages myself. The only hard part was to make sure two businesses that sell similar things (two restaurants or two banks) didn't appear on the same page.

The tab was to print Tuesday night for Wednesday's paper. Except that the person selling the ads somehow thought the ads didn't need to be ready until Wednesday morning. The managing editor had to pitch in and learn how to download the ads from the hub over the phone.

Thanks to a few extra photos of star players, a story on the AstroTurf that's going down on the stadium field and a pair of stories previewing the two leagues the two schools appear in, the space got filled. But this was the worst experience I've ever had working on a tab.

I didn't have the pages to do any layout until noon on Monday but at least I already had four of the five main stories written. And, of course, doing the regular Monday sports stuff.

Any thanks for taking on some extra responsibility? No. Any "Hey, good jobs?" Hell no.

 

Are you complaining about having to work hard? If you don't like it, quit. Your 24 pages is nothing compared to the 56 pages I did on a two man staff. In fact, the four-man staff I work on now still puts out a 48 page football tab. We take all the pictures, write the stories, etc.

Big fucking deal. Some of you guys are lazy as fuck. I bet you make your girlfriend do all the work while you catch a few winks of shuteye.

 

Fuck. You guys are some lazy fuckers. Get used to this pal. This is how it is. Work your ass off or find another job. I've been doing this shit for 25 years. You're either a lazy shit or you're willing to work. Glad I don't work with you pansies. I'd kick your ass and then fire you.

 

Bite me. I didn't say I wasn't willing to do hard work. I've been doing it for 20 years. What I was complaining about was how there were idiots in the company who seemed hellbent on making this year as difficult as possible.

Any other year, under normal circumstances, I'd have been proud of what I did. Work hard? Fuck you. I was in this office until 4:45 in the goddamned morning Tuesday.

 

Doc stayed til 6:30. Pansy!

 

Did I write any complaints in the post? I described that I had to do more work on the preview before it was eliminated. No where did I say, "Wha, it was too much work!"

Go listen to Collin Cowherd and blow your steam at something else.