d/fw morning star-telegram news

I think you are giving a little too much credit to some news reporters and ad reps.

Some work 35 hours and put down 40. Meanwhile, a lot of sports guys work 50, 60 and sometimes 70 hours and put down 40.

Sigh.

 

Frederick, did you forget which handle you were using?

 

No actually I am not Frederick, thank you.

Appreciate the random outing attempt, though. Guess no one can possibly have the same opinion on a topic.

 

Outing? Not at all.

I just think it is funny when my fellow sports brethren martyr themselves out and claim they work so much more than anyone else.

As though folks on the newside don't care about our business as much as we do. Of course, all they do is cover stupid meetings and don't bring in any revenue and they don't know what it's like to work on deadline, so they must only work 35 hours a week.

Bullshit.

I'm sure there are people skating by at every paper and I'd guarantee it happens a lot in sports as well, so why doesn't everyone just climb off their high horse.

 

Angola, you must not spend your time around people who really work. To do a good job in the circles I've run in during my career, there's nothing unusual about the 60-70 hour work week.

 

That's an apt correction, Shark.

 

It is unconscionable that the suits at either of these newspapers are considering dropping a major pro beat in their own backyards. We're not talking about Arena Football or MLS or WNBA. Major league baseball ... the NBA ... the NHL. Damn, the Stars won the Stanley Cup in '99 and have been a contender ever since. The Mavs have been a heavyweight in the West in recent years.

OK, the Rangers aren't a contender, but fan interest is strong, especially in spring/summer when there's no football. This is a bean counter's paper solution that WILL drive away readers. It even flies in the face of the so-called "hyper-local" mantra that's become the flavor of the month.

Smart move. Give readers another reason not to read your paper.

Rant over.

 

metroplex really isn't that great a sports town. a good winning town? yes but if you ain't winning, the interest goes way down. and while high school football may be big in this area, the colleges may as well be playing chess.

 

Sports writers don't work 70-hour weeks every week. Anyone who tells you they do is full of shit. Sorry. I work my share of them, but there's also my share of 25-hour weeks in the summer or during dead periods (like this week). It all balances out. And to say that every "news reporter" works 40 hours 9-5 MF is crying martyrdom a little too much. The hyperbole is staggering.

 

Shark, my apologies! I COMPLETELY forgot about T.R. What you said.

 

Sorry, but at the four newspapers I've worked the majority of the sports writers are putting in at least 50-60 hours a week. Some weeks, even more, depending on staffing issues, what's going on, who's on vacation, etc.

Meanwhile, most on the news side and advertising - at each of my newspapers, mind you - were out the door by 5 p.m., 6:30 p.m. at the latest.

Sometimes we had a news person in the office, but rarely after 9 p.m. But that was a staffer that came in at noon, so it's still an eight-hour workday.

I never said everyone in sports works 60 hours and everyone in news/advertising works 40 hours. But the majority of people at my shops would fit into the majority in both respective category.

Unfortunately, those newspapers didn't allow you to take time off in the summer to make up for extra time worked during other parts of the year. Many one-man college beats run August to June because of football, basketball and baseball, so there's not much time to take a breath.