DAMMIT, AP...

I'm always tickled when I file at 10:45 p.m. and hear the paper hit the porch at 2 a.m. I live 30 minutes from the press. So that's impressive. But I often question why the entire sports department is busting ass to get the paper out when everybody's going to be snoozing at that time of day. I suppose there are legitimate reasons, and I assume this is a battle that sports guys and gals have been fighting for eons.

 

I still remember coming back from the bars once, collapsing into a chair and hearing the paper land outside the door at 3:45 a.m. So I read it.

The next morning/afternoon, I woke up. It was such a disappointment to know I'd already read the paper.

 

The death of the 13-year-old paperboy killed the late deadline. Now, you've got "professional" delivery people who are using it as a second income. And if you don't have the paper in their hands by 2:30 so they can be done by 5:30 and get to their day job, they aren't going to work for you.

 

I used to deliver the morning paper. This time of year, it was a great time to smash pumpkins.

 

This dude abides:

 

Yes. I loved smashing pumpkins during the few times that I accompanied my neighbor friend on his route. But he didn't have the same gusto for the sport and requested that I quit doing it.

 

The fear of being caught and fired from the first job ever eventually brought the morning smashings to a halt.

The other smashings stopped after the time I somehow managed to pick up a Whitlock-sized pumpkin. The release was more of a simple letting-go than an actual smash.

The pumpkin itself was undamaged, but the wooden porch it landed on was not. After that, I retired from the sport.

 

We started a new football Friday template this year w/ expanded coverage, and on the first Friday night we were horribly late. Probably at least 45 minutes. I talked to some guy I know who delivers the papers, and he said the papers arrived at our office (we print off-site) earlier than he'd ever seen them there on a Saturday. It was then that I realized it makes no damn difference what time we get done. It's all about the mail room and press operators.

 

When we've been late, the paper has still been there in the morning. Same time as when we're early.

I told this story before _ we were having deadline problems early in one basketball season, and our circulation director was blaming us for delivery complaints. After that, we had a month where we hit deadline every night, and the number of delivery complaints went up. I told him he should not have complained, because now he lost his excuse.

He is no longer our circulation director.

 

Another deadline note _ we get an extra half-hour on Fridays during football and basketball season.

We hit that deadline, even though all of our prep stuff comes in after 10 p.m. And we still beat the news department, who has all of its local stuff by 8 p.m.

 

Deadline at our 17K p.m. daily is somewhat fluid. you hate to miss it but 15-20 min. isn't going to kill anyone.

But the thing is, when we're 10-15 (or in the rare 30 min) late, the press spits out copies right on time. When we're 30-45 (or even an hour early as is the case once a week or so), we have to wait 30-40 min. to get copies.

 

Our deadline is 11:30. We print off-site, so that means pages must be sent by 11:15 (typically takes 15 mins for pages to process and show up for approval in the system).
You have to make it. And we do. Friday nights are a bitch, but we've made it every week.
The key for us is just to realize that you aren't going to get certain things. It sucked ass to put in a box on 1C "The Cardinals were winning 4-2 in the ninth. Go to www.podunkpress.com for the story."
I don't understad how you can view deadline as anything but exactly that.