SID stories on the front page

I beg to differ. I'm looking at it from the viewpoint of the readers. This isn't a one size fits all business by any stretch. Schools A, B and C all have loyal fan bases of the the same size. We choose one event and don't cover the other two. Hell, we have what we think is good reason. We know we covered this school most recently and plan to cover that one next, so the one in the middle gets it at this crucial time. Readers don't know that. There may be no right answer on which is most important, but we've pissed off two-thirds of the readers we're talking about. Us not being there doesn't less an event's importance to them one iota. I'd rather get the job done with an SID at one or both of the others if that's my only option.

 

In a hilarious twist, the writer who was off on the day in question has now declared me his archenemy for daring to point out all the SID stories on the front. As in he actually used the word "archenemy" when talking about me.

 

You're trying to get him fired, Inky! Or maybe we should call you Lex Luther!

 

Funny thing is when we had layoffs when I was SE, I was given the option of cutting him. I didn't. Twice. I can only imagine what he'd say about me if I would have taken the publisher's suggestion of axing him.

 

The paper should use the AL.com method -- slap a byline on the school release. Then it looks like the writer was everywhere. Hell, they could put down overtime. "But boss, I was at the Podunk U game this morning and East Podunk U's game in the afternoon. I have the bylines to prove it."

 

After our paper was bought a couple of years ago, word came down that the new corporate overlords were counting bylines as they tried to figure out who to keep and who to cut. The ME at the time was unhappy with everything about the sale (mainly that they were about to lay off half the building) and told us to start putting bylines on everything we wrote -- normal stories, call-ins, briefs, you name it. Literally everything.
It was tournament season for college baseball (late May), which is a low ebb for local sports around here, but we typically gather the material and write our own stories. It was a joke for a few days that I was the busiest guy in the newsroom because I somehow covered games in Birmingham, Houston and our own town in the same afternoon.