Anybody else pulling football tab all-nighters this week?

Happily, I've been able to spread the work so I haven't had to pull an all-nighter for a couple years. Now I've been working at least 12-hour days for the past two weeks, but at least I get to go home, sleep, change clothes and shower.
And that, my friends, is progress.

 

What's a football tab? Ours (we did preps, colleges and pros) were bagged a few years ago when they were deemed unprofitable (after being the newspaper's biggest money-making sections for years). Now we provide maybe a 10th of the material and fold it into the regular sports section.

 

Our tab printed Tuesday. No need for all-nighters this week.

 

My concern tonight will be mainly proofing, which is progress.

 

Not this week. But soon. Last year, we had enough staff that I was able to spend an entire shift just on our tab. Not the case this year. I'm gonna have to do it on an off-day (actually, mgmt will probably want me to do it during my regular shift -- wouldn't surprise me). Either way, it will be a good time.

 

I haven't done a tab in several years. My last paper didn't do any kind of special section. We just ran features/previews throughout the week leading up to the first Friday.

At my current shop, we just printed our two zoned preview sections. They were four-pages apiece with full-page ads on the back for a coverage area that includes 36 football teams in one state and 23 in the other.

 

I start putting ours together Sunday, which will mean three hellish nights. That, and I have a 6-month-old at home who I take care of because my wife is back at work, meaning not only late nights at the office, but early nights in the nursery.

Is it Wednesday yet?

 

Kansas preps don't start until Sept. 5, so my tab isn't for another 2 weeks. However, I always get terrified that the coaches are going to piddle around with my surveys until it's too late. It did happen two years ago for a basketball tab. One boys' coach mailed it back late enough it arrived the day after it printed.

If the surveys all arrive on the same day, say the morning before the tab is supposed to go to press, then yeah, there will be an all-nighter. But I can take the next day off because no other sports are at home on that Thursday.

 

Mailed it?

 

Let's seeeeee. The week's played out like this.

Saturday: 4 p.m.-2 a.m.
Sunday: 3 p.m.-2 a.m.
Monday: 10 a.m.-10 p.m.
Tuesday: 10 a.m.-midnight
Wednesday: 10 a.m.-8:30 p.m.

It's been worse.

 

yeah, I had a couple of days that dipped slightly into the a.m. hours ... but a few double digit days is not bad. I've had many that went way, way worse and lasted for a week or more.

 

Same. I consider it a good year if I never reach that panic moment of "Holy shit, I've got to kick it in now."