Some more DMN stuff

Oh, sure. Most papers do something like this in the summer. Heck, even USA TODAY's sports sections often shrink to 10-12 pages during the summer months on some days. Eight pages now might be OK. If Dallas is doing eight pages in October and November, when your pros, colleges and preps are crying for space, then we might have a problem.

 

Listen to some of you guys.

Do you have such low standards, such measly expecatations, that you think eight pages at a major metro is OK just because it's summer?

 

Yes? No? I'm not sure how to answer this.

My local paper had a four-page section. Somehow the All-Star Game was not on Page One of the section.

Inside was the briefs column. It had two briefs. One of them was about Butthole Selig and was the longest brief I have ever seen.

 

As the industry adapts, we'll need to focus less on the number of pages in the sports section and more on how much content is being provided and in what form on a daily basis.

 

Mind if I ask a question:

"Huh?"

 

Add to the sports cliche list. The kind of jargon you see in E&P, or some company newsletter that's emailed out.

 

Size 6 font. 16 stories to a page.

 

More numbers from the DMN. In a previous post, I estimated sports staffing at 90-95. Sources tell me now it's down to 88 live bodies (discounting unfilled chairs and recent attrition). Word is that 20 to 30 positions could be eliminated, including major hits in national beats and the copy desk. Newspaper-wide, 488 editorial positions currently. Management is looking for a 15 percent reduction in force, which is 73 positions. So estimates of 75 posted here previously look pretty accurate.

Insiders say they will receive buyout information by the end of July, then have two weeks to make up their minds.

Dark days indeed for a once-proud section and newspaper.

 

Got news for you. Few, if any, of those 30 copy editors are chiefs. Trust me on this. I've been there. The vast majority of copy editors are ``the help,'' not the boss. And I'm guessing the agate editor is not a terribly powerful position, either.

 

He's not from Dallas.

Good line, though.

 

Fair enough. But do you really need almost 1 copy editor for every writer?

Counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere ....

 

No.

After all, the wire copy and photos all flow in by themselves with the proper specs, headline sizes and editing.

The pages all proofread themselves and send themselves.

The copy sends itself to the Web site with headline changes and the proper codes.

The city editors and line editors are always on top of every breaking story and change. They never miss anything; I've yet to change a word or ask a single question about any article, ever.

I've long sat in a chair, a thumb inserted in my rectum, for entire shifts while these things happened. My fellow CEs did the same.