d/fw morning star-telegram news

Were you there when they came into work? Maybe they start their days at 7 a.m.?

Also, I would assume the guys you are talking about who are working 60-70 hour weeks are on the road a lot or not in the office, so how do you know how many hours the news folks are working?

All I am saying is: The hyperbole on this thread is ridiculous and way too big of a brush is being used to paint ALL news people as lazy pieces of shit who don't do anything.

Oh, and at the three newspapers I've worked out, it has been pretty balanced between sports and news with some folks working lots of hours and some folks mailing it in and barely working 40.

 

"Were you there when they came into work? Maybe they start their days at 7 a.m."

It helped when you're friends with people from other departments. The ad reps worked 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at every place.

As for the news side, the day-to-day schedule was always been posted in the newsroom. It also helped having had sports editors that were in the office at 8 a.m. before everyone else and rarely got to leave the office because of meetings, etc. So he saw who came in when and how they spent their time in the office.


"All I am saying is: The hyperbole on this thread is ridiculous and way too big of a brush is being used to paint ALL news people as lazy pieces of shit who don't do anything. Oh, and at the three newspapers I've worked out, it has been pretty balanced between sports and news with some folks working lots of hours and some folks mailing it in and barely working 40."

Like I already wrote, I'm not saying everyone is doing this or doing that. That's just my past experiences. It is ridiculous to think everyone in sports works more hours than everyone else in news and advertising.

I'm definitely not saying anyone is a "lazy piece of shit" because they work fewer hours than the majority of my co-workers in sports.

Obviously, hours worked don't always translate into production. But I'm not going to pretend like there's not a disparity of hours worked between sports and news/advertising at my all of my stops.

 

Evan Grant, the same guy who left Pedroia completely off his AL MVP ballot? Guy does not need to be covering MLB in any capacity. He may be a great guy, but obviously he needs to be removed from MLB coverage.

 

Have him cover the WNBA or MLS. That should be punishment enough.

 

Um, the people to whom the ad reps are selling generally work 8-5. It would be kind of stupid for the ad reps to hang around the office when there's nobody at work to whom to sell.

 

You, sir, are without a clue.

 

What do you expect with someone who has the handle "RedSox99"?

For one of our resident Nation Fanchildren, here is Evan's reasoning.

http://rangersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/11/my-mvp-vote.html

 

this is from the unfair park blog at the dallas observer (complete with mention of SportsJournalists.com):


As News and Star-Telegram More or Less Merge, a Big Sports Shake-Up
Thu Dec 11, 2008 at 05:40:00 PM

Few weeks back we mentioned that The Dallas Morning News and Star-Telegram would be doing some story-sharing in an effort to pinch a few pennies. Earlier this week, ex-News-er Jerome Weeks cited a few examples of how the papers had already started sharing copy -- though all the pieces mentioned were arts-related.

But now, some significantly bigger news: Unfair Park has learned that The News is moving its longtime Texas Rangers beat writer, Evan Grant, to the Dallas Cowboys beat. Why? Very simple: Sources say The News will no longer be covering the Texas Rangers, at least not with a beat writer. Instead, sources say, The News will, at some point, begin running the Star-Telegram's Rangers stories. And, in exchange, the Star-Telegram will carry The News' Dallas Mavericks and Dallas Stars stories.

Initially, sources said The News would cover the Dallas Cowboys for the Star-Telegram, but others have since squashed this rumor. The merger would, inevitably, result in layoffs -- at least seven or eight, sources say. And we're not the only ones to hear about this: One daily sports writer directs our attention to a message board thread at SportsJournalists.com, where much of this has been discussed and debated since yesterday.

Bob Mong, editor of The News, couldn't be reached at his office or on his cell. Messages were also left with sports editor Garry Leavell.

But Jim Witt, executive editor at the Star-Telegram and a man who answers his own phone on the first ring, won't say whether or not the wife swap is happening. Instead, he tells Unfair Park this afternoon, "That's something I can't comment on. We've [shared] some reviews, and we've swapped a few pictures, but we're still talking about things, so I can't discuss in public any of that."

When asked when he might be able to talk in more detail, Witt says only, "We're meeting on a regular basis, but like other newspapers we're looking at ways to continue to put out a good newspaper and save money.

 

Get these guys' e-mail addresses and start complaining, big time.

Ya, it might not prevent anything, but venting is good.

 

and just in case you missed this little tidbit:

A.H. Belo boosts base pay for top executives
Associated Press, 12.08.08, 08:44 PM EST

Newspaper publisher A.H. Belo Corp. is boosting the base salary of two top executives even as it imposes a companywide wage freeze and suspends profit-based payments to retirement plans, the company said in a regulatory filing Monday.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/12/08/ap5795848.html

 

and an interesting empty-chair q&a on the pay raise for decherd:

Questions about Decherd’s 140% raise

Not everyone in the newspaper business is suffering equally though the most difficult time in the industry’s history. Robert W. Decherd, for one, is doing pretty well.

The chief executive of A.H. Belo Corp. recently got a 140% pay raise that will boost his base compensation to $600,000 a year from $250,000 in 2007, according to the Dallas Morning News, his flagship newspaper.

Given that Bob’s company recently froze salaries and pared 13% of its work force, I repeatedly tried to reach him this week to ask about the justification for, and timing of, his big pay bump.

But a woman answering the phone in his office said he was too busy to come to the phone and his corporate spokeswoman said he would have no comment on any questions I might have.

http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2008/12/questions-about-decherds-140-raise.html

 

It's stupid to think all ad reps do is go out and sell. Being an ad rep is more than just selling a product.

That's like saying all people in sports have to do is write stories and do pages. And that beat guys should only work when coaches are in the office and games are being played.

There's plenty of other work to be done by ad reps, like putting together proposals, proofing ads, compiling lists of potential future customers, preparing sales contracts, etc.

If most of an ad rep's time between 8 a.m.-5 p.m. is spent making sales calls, either in person or actually via telephone, when do they find the time to do all the previously mentioned things? Maybe a few late nights a week would help get the job done.

But most of the time, they're doing just enough to get by, and that's it. And, again, that's from my friends in management in such departments at all of my previous shops, not me. That has helped shape my opinion on the subject.