Hiring people to take high school call-ins, build simple summaries

I know guys who use the two finger method. I'm a five finger guy. Funny, I learned to memorize the home row when I was in school but couldn't tell you what it is now if put on a pop quiz.

 

Guy called...a college guy...and expressed interest. Said he was really interested in covering national events.

I want to call him and say "Do you prefer an NFL training camp tour or can you get to the Olympics by noon tomorrow?"

Scary.

 

You may want to snoop around the archives a bit as well. I seem to recall a thread with tips for the prep beat a year or so ago.

EDIT: Needed something to do to stay entertained while waiting for the Rays-A's game to end.
http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/78641/

 

It's called community journalism. Get used to the term.

 

Not to be rude, but no, you're not.

No offense but you sound like a guy who I used to work with that refused to learn the keyboard shortcuts in Quark during the year he was with our paper. He insisted that he was faster if he just used the mouse. It might have taken him a little longer at first to use the shortcuts, but there's a reason they're called shortcuts. Once you know them, they are faster.

Same thing with typing. Ten fingers type faster than six in anybody who has any amount of proficiency.

 

Question for those of you using stringers. We're a two-person staff, cover two high schools, a JUCO, plus a private Christian school that only fields a few teams in select sports. We're a bit stretched thin as is, but I've been wanting to beef up our coverage of other teams in those school's district/conference. Nothing major. Just a score with a small two-, three-graf brief, if possible.

But, like I said, we're stretched pretty thin. Well, a freshman entering high school emails me the other day asking how he can get experience in the business because, well, he wants to be a sports journalist some day. My thought was –– and I figured I'll ask for advice here before going to the big bossmen upstairs –– would bring the kid in maybe on like a 5-10 hour week internship-type basis. Let him get the experience he wants, we keep cost down and still get the expanded coverage. Plus if the kid does decent work, maybe throw him a fluff piece or two, something simple, to get his byline in the paper on occasion. Y'know, experience.

Thoughts? Is that infringing on any child labor laws?

 

This. OVER AND OVER AGAIN.

 

Check with the state Labor Relations board, or whoever governs such things where you are.

Around here, unpaid internships are against state law. We can only use interns if they're getting some kind of credit, either from a college -- which means the kid pays to work for us -- or as a high school independent study. We'd have to make them freelancers, paid per assignment, which means the kids can't come into the office or use our equipment.

We're actually searching for new freelancers right now without much success. I'm hoping we'll have better luck when the college kids come back in a few weeks.

 

High school kids can be a nightmare. I dealt with a few at a previous paper. The good ones have no trouble getting the work done and showing up. Others struggle and just give up. They have trouble understanding deadline, AP style and some of the basics. If they don't like the gig, they just won't show up anymore.
If you do decide to go with the kid, make sure to walk him through everything step by step and then do it again. Start them slow, and I mean really slow. If the kid works out with the remedial tasks and his copy looks decent, then a puff piece once a week or biweekly wouldn't hurt.
Be gentle with how you handle the kid (i.e. keep the yelling to a dull roar). Just explain the mistakes, how to fix them and institute into the next story.
But remember what you're dealing with, a high school kid. "Stuff" just pops up and you have to be ready for a lack of notice for things like H.S. dances, games and other activities. Be clear that those actions are not allowed and can be grounds for termination.

 

Child labor laws? How young is the person?

Makes me wonder. I was mowing lawns for money when I was 13. Is there any difference between that and sitting at a desk taking phone calls?

 

I had a high school junior for a while doing short write-ups. His copy was actually pretty good once I showed him what AP style was. As for "stuff" popping up, yeah. I got to hear that when he didn't want to work on Fridays because he wanted to go to games.

 

I mean, they're not all horrible. At my previous paper we actually had two good high school interns. One helped me with taking stats at football games, etc. The other actually wrote a story once a week — usually a Q&A with a business — but did news stories, features as well.
If the kid cares and is motivated, he'll be a solid tool for taking calls, etc. If not, you'll probably want to slam his face into a wall. The shitty ones tend to think they can pull one over on you like you're their parents.
Just make sure the kid is up front with you about his availability.