Dear dimwit on the phone

Everyone's situation is different - no one-size-fits-all solutions. My chain brethren can't say that out loud, of course.

 

I still am not sure I see the relevance in running box scores in this day and age. As I said in previous post, I read a lot of things in the paper I didn't know or didn't know I'd want to read. MLB results/box scores are not one of them. I think agate in general, unless it's local college scores of teams we don't cover on a daily basis or something similar, is a huge waste of space. Horse racing, dog racing, MLB/NHL/NBA boxes, all of that stuff can easily be found online for anyone who is interested. I'd rather devote the space to good (mostly local) stories.

 

That's been my argument for a couple of years now. As local papers, we have to do the things that we do best, and do them as well as well can. The other stuff has to fit in around the edges.

 

Yep. Everyone in management SAYS they want hyper-local, but they rarely follow up with actions to make it a reality.

 

This is how agate works at my paper:

EDITOR: We need to make agate cuts here, here and here so that the remaining agate can fit into the paper.

READER: Why did you cut such-and-such agate?

EDITOR: That's a good question and after I find out why, I'll make sure it gets back in the paper, random anonymous person. Why did we cut such-and-such agate?

EMPLOYEE: Because you said to.

EDITOR: No I didn't.

 

You guys have bigger problems than what agate is or isn't getting in, seems to me.

 

Some guy doesn't understand why we aren't giving [university not in our conference] prominent coverage because he's mistaking the name of their conference with the name of the our conference and thinks it's one big conference.

You don't even know the half of it.

But you will if I can ever find another job. Then I'll blab everything on here, including a ton of e-mails from the SE. ;D

 

Someone, please, hire Kolchak now! Those emails sound like they'd be very entertaining reading.

 

I would like to congratulate every contributor here. We are now on 200 pages ... and counting.

 

"Here, sir, there will always be more dimwits" with apologies to Stephen King.

 

Common sense says you have a finite amount of space (normally less) and a almost infinite amount of agate (or copy). Someone has to make the decision of what to include and what to leave out. That's the job of the editor of that page. Larger issues (such as running pro box scores) can and should be discussed among the staff as a whole, but when the rubber hits the road, it's the agate editor's job to use the space as best he/she can.

 

Eh, gossip may be entertaining, but it's rarely a good idea.