Need advice about a weekly

I worked for a couple of years at a Northern Virginia weekly that routinely had 12-plus (!) pages for sports ... three or four of those pages were dedicated to horse sports -- and thank goodness there were other people to handle that duty ... but that still left me with eight pages (and sometimes more) to fill.

And, of course, no wire. (Or, for that matter, Internet in those days.)

I learned A LOT about being creative and worked my butt off. And loved it.

 

I was in a similar situation as you last summer, just hired at a weekly where I cover three high schools, but found there wasn't much to report on during the summer days.
There's some great advice here, especially the "best of" series around the community. Great idea.

Summers consist of a lot of baseball, rodeos (if there are any, which is a big deal around our area) and features particularly.
While there are those lazy kids who sit around playing video games all summer long, there are several others who are staying active and doing things worth doing a story on, such as this one girl who I found out is a cycling state champion at 15 and now has a desire to compete at the Olympics.

Stories are out there, but I agree with everyone, you have to go out into the community and find them and not sit in the office and play on the Internet.

Also, at those small community papers, getting updates on athletes who are competing at the college level are good stories to tell since most people know who they are and probably wonder how they're doing.

 

Try a "game of the week" preview for both schools.

 

Thank you all so far. I do write a column each week and try to do a feature, but it just doesn't seem enough. Again, I thank you all for your idea's so far and look forward to more.