Dear dimwit on the phone

Nothing's weird about it. A lot of my cousins' kids on my father's side would be in that boat. Family home base is in one town, but some have branched out over the past 15-20 years (self included).

However, Spartan's devil advocacy was based on the possibility of the girl having lived there before, since that had yet to be determined in the posts.

 

I love the ones who call and want us to run a story because, even though the nuclear family moved away when they were young, the awardees' grandparents are in the area and would like to see their grandchild's name in the paper. Uh, send a postcard or an e-mail? Maybe make a phone call? But if you want the grandparents to see the name in the paper, tell you what I'll do ... I'll not only transfer you to one of our friendly ad reps, since you've been nice, I'll let your talk to the hot one!

 

Have you ever run a "notebook" short for this?
"Joe Schmoe signed a scholarship to play at Pudunk University. He is the grandson of Edna and Jed Schmoe of Nowheresville."

Just a thought?

 

The only time a paper I worked for actually took the grandparents angle was when a granddaughter swam for Team USA in the Olympics. Actually turned into a nice story and we got a nice interview with the athlete when same for a visit after the Games.

 

I'll sometimes use that kind of stuff for the notebook, since as you point out, it's just one line and shuts the person up. But not every paper I was at had that kind of feature; I think just the small local daily. If you're at a weekly shop and space is tight already for the once-a-week edition, then you probably don't want to open Pandora's Box for a slew of these submissions.

 

This ... and I'm at a small daily.

I know there are some community journalism models that suggest we run something to make one reader happy, but that's never gonna work. I remember one place I worked where a guy sold the city editor a story about a book his daughter wrote ... and she'd never set foot in the area we covered. Guy wants to brag about his grandkids' scholarship with his buddies down at the doughnut shop, send him a clip from the Hometown Herald. Because outside of the grandparents, I don't think anyone else in town gives a rat's ass.

 

Yes, I'd pass on the grandparents angle...but I started up a Sideline column a couple years ago that gives me a spot for middle school highlights, bowling, golf club stuff, etc. It seems to work pretty well for giving those items a spot in the paper. Of course, you still have those people that are bummed out that their middle school update was given two paragraphs on the side instead of a full blown anchor story complete with photo of team hoisting a trophy.

 

Caller: Cup stacking is considered a sport.
Me: By who?
Caller: It's being considered for the Olympics.
Me: I hope they do it nude, like in the olden days.
Caller: They never did cup stacking nude.

 

Funny, but not very professional if you actually did this to a caller you don't know.

 

When it comes to cup-stacking, band awards and cheerleading "competitions" alert the schools page.

 

On that note...

Dear angry cheerleading parent,

Just because the state's athletic body approved cheerleading in 2013 (for whatever reason), we are still in 2012. It is not going on our number of sports pages are already pared down to the bare minimum, especially in the thick of winter sports season. I will promptly forward your email to where it belongs, to whomever does the school page.

P.S. In your email, capitalizing SPORT is not going to change my mind.

 

One of the many reasons why our industry is in trouble.
Just because you think it isn't a sport doesn't make it so.
Cover it. Do a feature on it becoming a sport. Talk to participants about the stigma of it not being a sport. I'm not saying cover it like it's the biggest thing in the world, but it deserves as much coverage as any other winter sport. In my neck of the woods, those meets have the best attendance. It's insanity. No one covers them, so we do and we get readers. And while sales aren't part of the job, if the single copy sales go up, it proves there is interest, despite what narrow-minded sportswriters think.