DAMMIT, AP...

10-15 years ago, we held our first edition as a higher priority, and we tried to get our entire prep package finished for an 11 p.m. deadline. Looking back, I still don't see how we did that successfully as often as we did.

Now, the SE does a 20-24" wrap on all the early games we get for first edition ... then we turn around and do the big package for 12:15.

 

[slight threadjack]
From an average reader's point of view, Department of the Obvious: the more I see "the game ended too late for this edition," the less likely I am to buy that paper in the future. I consider myself fortunate to still have an afternoon daily in the area, and gladly write the check for an annual renewal.

Apparently the beancounters at the other local papers think people like me don't exist... and as long as they keep their early deadlines they'll probably continue to think so, because they won't be adding my name to their subscriber databases any time soon.
[/threadjack]

 

why buy the afternoon daily? Do you not know the web address for, you know, any sports site anywhere?

 

Absolutely. Every computer I own has toolbars/bookmark-lists chock full of 'em. Does me no good whatsoever when I'm sitting in the breakroom in the middle of the night with a few minutes to kill, and the only Internet access is via my cellphone. (Fine for score updates, not so much for decent reading material.) Ah, but here's a copy of the paper on the table. Problem solved.

If that makes me a relic, so be it... but there are still some of us out here.

One thing to note here: the paper I subscribe to does run a morning edition on weekends, but a post-midnight deadline means hardly ever having to use the "too late" line. As long as they keep printing, I'll keep buying.

 

Billy Corgan, Smashing Pumpkins.

Homer Simpson, smiling politely.

 

That's the story I keep hearing, too.

But it still staggers me that for all the pagination advances and $20 million press improvements, it still all comes down to finding someone to deliver the product from point A to point B.

My paper's deadlines 20 years ago:

12:30 (border county edition)
1:10
1:40
2:15 (main run)

My paper's deadlines today:

11:30 (main run)
12:30 (border county edition)

Even if the internet never existed, the above numbers would be a solid explanation for circulation decline.

 

Because, having worked in the publishing business for 14 years, I know that deadlines are different in different places. I don't know about your shop with its out of town press and corporate ownership but I suspect the nuts-and-bolts are the same given your circulation area.

The biggest reason we are expected to meet deadline is that the circ director doesn't want the motley crew of fringe elements who comprise our delivery staff hanging around on premise too long with nothing to do.

 

I'd imagine that a p.m. paper would also have less room for error on getting papers out on time.

 

That's correct but we're almost never late M-F. Only when there's a major malfunction with the Macs but that hasn't happened in awhile. We're usually done by 9:30-10 during the week and the deadline is 10:30.

The times that we might go 10-15 late are on Friday nights and that's when it's the most dangerous to have the delivery folk idly roaming the unstaffed hallways and office area of the building.

 

That's true. They might die of malnutrition or meth poisoning inside the building.

 

I worked at a daily and had to physically take the film canister to the press room. All of the press folks were paidly by the hour, and the biggest beef regarding deadlines was that they would get paid for sitting on their duffs if the paper was late. The reality is that they sat on their duffs for most of the day.

But they did appreciate it when they received pages early and, thus, had a chance to head home early. The same went for the inserters. Deadlines are a priority, but it also irked me that I was in near panic to get the pages finished while the riff-raff sat around complaining that they needed to finish early so that they could do some non-essential task the following day. It was as if they planned out their days and then tried to fit their work time into the gaps, rather than the opposite. But I always had a pretty good rapport with those folks. I made sure they knew that their work was important and that they were a part of the team. I think that appreciation, sometimes, offsets any of the hostility they feel when things aren't following their schedules.

 

I appreciated what they did, but that didn't change the fact they were uneducated rednecks with 8 teeth in their head and 8-ball eye sockets from whatever drug they were sampling that particular week.