Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to friends and colleagues, especially those who happen to be working today at 7-day papers, websites and broadcast outlets.

I worked plenty of Christmases, and normally didn't object much. It was quiet. I was really good at advance planning, so I'd stash feature and enterprise stories in the weeks leading up to Christmas and pretty much knew what my section was going to look like. I often got most of my layout done a day or two early and almost never had to change it for breaking news. About the biggest breaking news I ever had on Christmas was when Billy Martin died (2003) or Urban Meyer announced his first retirement (2009). Could usually get the entire section done in 2-3 hours.

We'd often run local Athlete of the Year or Top Stories of the Year packages, so that they wouldn't get crowded out around New Year's with all the bowl games and holiday basketball tournaments and give us good local content.

Anyway, just wanted to give a shout out to those working today and remind them that their efforts and sacrifices do not go unnoticed or unappreciated.

 

And to you!

 

I looked at our budget...and I am wondering how to fill 5 pages. But we'll figure it out.

Best of luck to all in getting all the news that fills...I mean fits!

 

Yeah, gotta plan in advance when you're working Christmas.

 

Billy Martin died in 1989.

 

Damn, I was way off. Remembered it was Christmas Eve, all the years run together.

Something happened in 03, now I just can't remember what it was. Oh, well.

 

you must have been thinking of former Massachusetts congressman Nicholas Mavroules
http://people.famouswhy.com/nicholas_mavroules/

 

Aside of interest only to me: First time I ever laid eyes on Yankee Stadium, I flew up on Christmas Day to help my sister move from Dobb's Ferry, and as my brother-in-law drove me past, the digital billboard out front read, "RIP Billy Martin."

First I had learned of his death.

 

It's above my pay grade to plan. I just show up and put what the writers give me on the page. Today that means 1 college football feature, 1 notebook and a local hockey story. Yeah...that's not enough to fill 5 pages. God Bless the wires we have.

Got it done, of course...but it's ugly: a whole page of NBA games; a whole page of college football; a couple NFL features on another page. Luckily, had a lengthy weekly feature on the local hockey team that runs on Weds. to fill some space.

 

Hey, at least you HAVE writers contributing something. Too often, I got stuck with 5-6 empty pages and no local stuff, unless I insisted we planned something in advance. Calling someone at 5 pm Christmas night and yelling "Hey, where's my feature?" didn't help much....LOL.

Once I got a good centerpiece, I could cobble together the rest. One of my pet peeves was taking a routine regular-season NFL or NBA game and running 25 inches on it, whereas the previous night it might get 3 graphs in a roundup. I'd usually opt for some enterprise or feature piece or, in the case, of the NFL maybe a look-ahead. Especially in a market that doesn't have any pro teams.

 

Prep All-Area teams this week.

 

All-area teams in what sport? I had top 10 local stories, and for the first time since last Christmas, 3 separate NBA gamers with pics, plus a nice Jason Avant feature — even though this is Browns territory, "From gang member to man of Christ" fits like a glove here.

done by 10:30, almost 2 hrs. early