Running Football Tab Thread

We are putting the finishing touches on a 156 pager that will TOTALLY suck ass.
We have over 20 leftover stories that didn't get in because the ad department sold the hell out of thing (not a bad thing) but our Pub. didn't want to break from the stitch and trim job and bump the tab to 196 pages.
So we have a tab with:
A generic cover
One (team) photo of each of our 26 High schools with rosters and 2005results and 2006 schedules
One story each on the 6 high schools in our home coverage area with one accompanying sidebar
One story and one crappy team photo of our 20 fringe teams
One story and one sidebar each on our four college teams
We stripped out all the prep records, past award winners and champions lists and college and NFL schedules (Not really a big loss but still ...)
We have a tab that contains exactly 27 percent copy compared to 73 percent ads, including 51 fullpage ads.
Like I said, nice job by the ad department - but good luck selling this thing next year.
And 25, count'em 25, unused features and sidebars along with 100s of mugshots and photos.
Worst football tab I have ever been associated with.
Hits the street next Thursday. Folks are going to be disappointed.

 

You can't use any of those stories in the regular sports section?

 

I would think that gives you plenty of copy to run in the local section over the next week till the season starts. we may have an extra story or two to run in the paper. an extra 20 seems kind crazy, but if you run two a day...

 

If I were you, I'd avoid your photo department for a while.

"We took all these fuckin' mugshots, and they didn't run!"

They might even write some sentence fragments and gibberish for cutlines. Wait, never mind.

 

And get in all the helmets.

 

Copy deadline is the 18th, and our prep tab will run on the 25th. I enjoy the tab, and I think we put out a good product. What I can't understand is this:

There are three decent-sized towns, all about 45 miles away in different directions. We're the smallest circulation, I think. I know we've got the smallest staff BY FAR. Yet we're the only ones who take the time to put out a football (and basketball) tab. Boggles the mind.

We went with more of a central package rather than a cover story this year, and I think it's going to turn out dandy.

 

Man, you guys getting 132- and 164-page tabs????!!!!! What's up with that? Where do you work, New York City? The guy who said his monster section was 73% ads---were they being sold for 50 cents apiece? I'd be thrilled if our ad department could sell 20% ads.

 

We will run most of the leftover stories in the daily. However, these are stories that could have been done without the standard deadline crunch of the tab.
I told my boss we have enough leftover copy I shouldn't have to write a prep preview 'til Nov.

We took all the photos ourselves.

Clutch,
Small town in West "By God" Virginia at a mid-size daily.

 

You have to wait a whole week after it prints? Or does that mean all the stories are done and you print the night before. I'd be scared to death that a cover boy would break his ankle or knock up the coach's daughter in that time span. Happened before.

 

Our preview had to be out the door (it's printed off-site) Aug. 11. Copy deadline was Aug. 7. Publish date is Aug. 23.

 

I'm pretty sure Northwestern's poster promos still have Randy Walker in them.

 

A few years back, friend of mine wrote a huge takeout for his tab about new Cowboys starting QB — Tony Banks. Talk about slash-and-burn in the tab...