Earlier Deadlines screws sport coverage

Nothing good will come from this, especially when covering any game or sports event not ending by 7 pm. Our new slogan: “Monday’s scores on Wednesday morning”.
Times Herald-Record moving print production to NJ; reporting will remain local

 

I’m guessing the property will be sold after editorial/sales/administrative staff are moved into new leased office space.
Pocono Record announces production partnership with NJ's Daily Record

 

Welcome to the rest of the world?
Once your indignation wears off, you'll learn to adjust. We went to an 8 p.m. deadline when our press was shuttered about two years ago. You shift some content to the web, tweak your gamers into second-day stories, look-aheads and features for the next game, and appreciate one of the hidden benefits -- not nearly as many late nights.
If anything that starts after 5 p.m. won't get in the paper, then there's no need to hold the paper until the last minute, right? In my case, I'm done with my section by 6 p.m. most days and might be done even earlier if not for an annoying flaw in our production process. That means the days when I have nothing to cover, I actually get home at a decent hour. That includes the day after games, when theoretically a lot of your content should be ready to slap on the page when you walk in the door.
Early deadlines only suck until you realize there's nothing you can do about them. The decision was made so far above you that fighting it is doing nothing but wasting your breath and raising your blood pressure. You have to learn to work with them and around them. Or you can bang your head into the wall, quit in a huff, and no one will ever remember you worked there six weeks later.

 

Once you give up on deadlines and publishing daily, it really makes all other decisions that much easier to make. Comics? gone. Preps? gone. Movie listings? gone (unless they pay), political endorsements/editorials (why upset readers?)

 

You're just following industry trends!

 

The suits simply don't care. As long as they're pocketing six and seven-figure bonuses, why should they care if the quality of coverage suffers or subscribers become former subscribers?

 

Same thing at the paper in Fairbanks. Owner is driving the paper into the ground instead of investing. Comics? Reduced drastically. Daily editorials? Gone. Sports agate? Gone. Sports calendars? Piecemeal. Deadlines bounced from 11:45 pm to 12:45 am to 11:45 to 10:45, which is killing our sports coverage. Embarrassing.

Even worse, copy desk is not allowed to ask questions of reporters. A copy editor recently was fired because the “copy chief” was angry that she asked sports/news reporters questions. And do NOT question any decision she makes.

The copy editor’s old job is listed on a journalism jobs site. If you love sports/newspapers like I do, you do NOT want to work where the supervisor doesn’t support you.

 

Here's the deal from my side:

Media management is using the early print deadlines to justify turning web sites into evening papers.

No excuse that you can't have Wednesday's games online by 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday -- 8 a.m next day latest.

If I can compile and post results from three different teams WHILE RIDING A DAMN BUS ON I-10, why can't a media outlet?

I have a few other anecdotes -- local shop complete whiffs on Holyfield in town, for example -- I can share later.

I'll listen.

 

All this ... plus, you get to live in Fairbanks during the winter. No thanks.

 

If any part of the second graf above is true, DO NOT touch this job.

Any copy desk chief who won't defend her charges is no one worth the time. If done correctly, reporters are grateful someone is there to ask questions to help clarify. A copy desk chief who thinks in those sorts of punitive terms is to be avoided at all costs.

 

And it's a copy desk chief who is just setting that paper up for a lawsuit someday ...

 

Exactly. The fact many major newspapers have gone to afternoon deadlines for final print copy tells us their goal is to be all online sooner rather than later. Somebody should compile a list of major papers and their final print deadlines for copy. The print product quietly has changed in most markets and reinvented itself. It no longer is about covering news as it happens (in the print edition; the Websites are timely of course thanks to reporters will ing to work 24/7 and have no lives).
Deadlines at 6 p.m., 5 p.m., or 7 p.m. for print copy means the print mission now is about filling space for the baby boomers who still will purchase a newspaper no matter what is in it. I've heard deadlines for copy in Chicago, Detroit, Cincinnati, Memphis, Dallas are all 5 to 6 p.m. Is that true? Then you can see right there the print product has nothing to do with timely news. Again, it's all about making money from the baby boomers who simply cannot live without their morning paper and coffee.
I would think cutting the comics next and crosswords would make "some" of the boomers finally cancel their subscriptions, but perhaps not. It could be "til death do us part" with boomers and the print product. If newspapers didn't charge 500 to 1000 dollars for a single obit, I guess they'd get rid of obits too. I'd think except for PRINT (not intern4t) ads on retirement homes and hearing aids the next biggest money maker for a newspaper is profits from expensive obits.

I'm still waiting for an expose on advertising for the Websites. I find it hard to believe advertisers care about pageviews as much as suits are telling their reporters. I find it hard to believe furniture stores and car dealerships and grocery stores have execs taking out their checkbooks after presentations from ad people at newspaper websites inforning those business owners that they should advertise on the newspaper website (do non suits really believe that's possible??)