Stretched-thin folk: How do you deal with no overtime?

Same boat here for the last year or so...although we get the occasional limited overtime to cover playoffs (probably not for this season, though).

We use to cover a similar load to what you are describing 6-8 gamers a week, but have since scaled back on the gamers and gone to more of a package format. Pick one big event per issue and go big with it, while just supporting with a few gamers. These packages could be features, a big game/tournament or some enterprise idea you come up with.

Just this week, one of our wrestling teams had a big win (first win over the alpha dog in 25 years)...that was our front page...multiple photos, a sidebar and a graphic.

We used to reserve that treatment for state championships only.

When you break it down a typical gamer takes about 4 hours to get through production. But a quick phone call for a sidebar and designing a graphic can take 1-2 hours...that slices hours right there...not to mention filling more space with the package which takes away another gamer or two (4-8 hours).

Response has been good since we went to this format over the summer. We still get a few grumbles about lack of coverage, but no more than we were getting before.

My shop is good about making sure a 40-hour week is a 40-hour week (many aren't it seems), but I felt comfortable talking to my publisher about slicing a page out of our section. We move up as necessary, but are down on average a page per issue.

Of course, I should mention we cut a full-time position to part-time recently, leaving me to take on another of our sports sections...thus the request for a drop in pages.

I hate having to make those hard decisions about who deserves coverage, especially during playoff time, but it's become a necessary change in our business. That is when we get our most heated complaints though...parents upset we weren't at their big playoff game...justified given that most of us have been able to offer a larger breadth of coverage in the past.

 

Pilot makes a great point, as well.

Sure, choose a main event to focus on, but nothing is wrong with getting to a basketball game at halftime and writing a gamer from that. Most of your story should be on the game-deciding plays toward the end anyway, and if it's a 74-48 blowout was it really a game worth covering?

It's nice to be able to take in a whole event, but I have plenty of doubleheader nights where I'll catch the end of one game, then head off to somewhere else.

We've also found that the enterprise/feature packages pull in the news reader more, while an issue stacked with gamers has a limited audience.

 

For those looking for fresh design ideas...this is a great site to add to your daily mix...plus you can upload your pages to share (still haven't figured that out...must be missing a step somewhere)...anyway here's the link...

http://www.sportsdesigner.com/

 

stand alones ....

 

Having become the SE of a one-man department at 13,000-circ Mon-Fri, I'm dealing with this issue too trying to pick and choose what to put in a section that's generally just 2 pages (with ads). We cover eight high schools and a DI college 10 min down the road and folks at the paper are worried that I'm not doing enough with middle school sports.....like 8 high schools and a college aren't enough for one person to cover and cram in that small amount of space...you've just got to pick and choose.

 

But didn't he say that he WAS putting overtime? So he wasn't falsifying time prior to this was he? He was putting OT?
The bottom line is the bosses outside of sports at many (most?) shops have absolutely no clue of what it takes in terms of time to cover events, travel to events, etc. For decades they have been uneducated, thinking it is easy and fun to cover sports. At many shops, with just a couple full time employees who have to edit and cover things, it is impossible to put out a 7-day newspaper working 40 hours. Many shops won't pay the overtime, so the wink wink system becomes reality. You do it or you are fired. That's just the way it is.

 

Listen to this man.

 

You're not getting middle school sports if I can't even cover enough preps. Any advertiser who thinks middle school sports coverage attracts eyeballs is an idiot.

 

One thing that was impressed on me by my bosses is "that's the way we've always done this" is no reason to keep doing it that way. Get those coaches to pick up that phone when they're out of town. In the old days, I'd say have them call collect, but with all the cell plans out there, its a freebie call anyway after hours. As suggested, if you can save time at games, do it.

 

Yeah, the way we have always done it seems to be doing a bangup job in the newspaper biz.

 

It doesn't. But when a previous SE who was there almost 20 years did so, a precedent - no matter how bad it is - has been set.

There's plenty to do. Offer the middle school coaches the number to the sports desk and leave it at that.

 

Here's what you do. Go to the games. Watch your watch as it relates to the time card.

Then, if you face an overtime nightmare, leave.

Instruct your editor to explain "Due to overtime issues in our department, we were unable to get the Class 5A state championship game. Coaches could not be reached as we had to mind wage and hour guidelines. We regret the inconvenience."

After all, journalistic integrity gives us credibility, right?