No-hitters and Your Paper

Barring unforeseen local circumstances, absolutely.

 

It might have gotten in a roundup.

Just because we didn't put it on the front doesn't mean we're a horrible section. We're the paper of record for our circulation area, not the nation, so we put local content on the front. It may only be junior college and high school stories, but it justifies our jobs more than lots of wire copy.

 

Here's the dirty little secret about color deadlines. They screw your color.

The reason they have them is so they can get three of those plates set in stone at 10 p.m. Then you can change the black plate as often as you want.

But talk to anyone in the reproduction business, and they'll tell you all four plates should be sent through when there's a makeover of any kind. The color plates can move a point or two the second time they're sent, just enough so they're not in perfect register with the black plate.

But the bean-counters think that any color is better than no color at all, so they count those plates being sent. It's a shame.

Hmmm. Hope you didn't have to lop off the last two grafs of the West Podunk game story above the roundup. :

There are next to no absolutes when it comes to news play. A no-hitter in the majors is about as close to an absolute as you get.

[/hoppingoffelitistsoapboxandtiptoeingaway]

 

Um, if the decision is between keeping two grafs of local vs. getting more of the no-hitter story, it's a no-brainer. Local. Now, if I'm the Boston Globe, maybe that changes things. But I'm absolutely taking the option that doesn't a. lose me readers, b. get me phone calls and emails from angry parents and coaches the next day, and c. hurt the reputation of my paper in the eyes of the locals over looking like my paper is big league.

 

We ripped up our front page, but the Rangers are considered our "local" team.
If it wouldn't have involved the Rangers or Astros, we would have just teased to it and had a story inside.

 

Mert ... we've gone from whether this story is worth tearing up your front page for, to how much of it you're going to shoehorn into a roundup.

That's just too much of a swing for me to buy, regardless of the paper.

 

My point was based on that being the decision. If it had to go inside, I'm still not fucking with my local stuff for it.

 

In my market, no way in hell it deserved to go out front. And I think my paper is halfway decent. In the Internet age, the no-hitter absolute being posited here is rubbish.

 

Where'd Rydell scoot off to? Starts all this shit and then slips off to bed ...

 

I didn't rip up my front, but I did change it. Pushed a 6-inch regional NFL story by the AP from the bottom right corner (two columns) inside and put the no-hitter in that space with Buehrle's mugshot. Didn't have room for an action photo with three pictures running with local/regional stories. So Buehrle ran below the fold, above our "Inside" rail that runs along the bottom of the page and below the area MLB story from the AP.

On the front page, replacing a blah AP story, that's good enough for me.

 

Your paper sucks, dools.

 

It matters to me. We don't sacrifice our local coverage for national. My paper wanted to cut my position last year, but didn't. I dodged a bullet. I like my job, I like where I live, so fuck some asshole 1,000 miles away just because he pitches a no-hitter. It may be Podunk to you, but it's my job, so fuck your smug attitude as well.