Staff size in relation to circulation

26K/30K
1 SE, 1 ASE, 1 reporter/columnist, 1 reporter.

During football season we have 6 or so stringers out along with the ASE and both reporters along with a staff of four in the office taking calls. We also have one PT person who spends some time doing clerk work for sports all year.

66 high schools (two get a beat writer), D-II college, minor league baseball and football.

SE does not write, but does layout. ASE acts as a reporter who does layout twice a week. Neither reporter does layout.

Recently, there were five people with three reporters and an ASE who wrote maybe once a week. But we lost one of the editors and were not given permission to replace them. Because of that, the D-II football team will not get a beat writer this year and will be covered by a stringer at home and one of the reporters on the road when the schedule allows it.

 

23K.
1 SE, 2 FT sportswriters. 3-6 stringers.
Universal copy desk, but we have 2 copy editors/designers assigned to sports. SE fills in as well.
14 high schools, some D-I college, NFL and auto racing.

 

No, the Universal Desk was attempted, but failed when they kept losing copy editors (I believe they're down to four full-time copy editors/paginators total now). Currently, the SE and myself do the majority of paginating/copy editing. The other two writers bust their asses to produce local copy on a daily basis.

At one point, just three years ago, we had an SE, ASE, outdoors editor, five full-time writers and six part-time agate clerks/writers. And to think, we bitched about being understaffed back then. I'd love to go back to those days.

 

23K, seven days

four pages M-Th
six pages Fri-Sat
six-eight pages Sun

A year before I started, the staff looked like this:

1 SE
1 juco writer
2 high school writers
4 part timers

Now

1 SE
1 juco writer
1 high school writer
2 part timers

But, we just hired another full-time worker. He'll take the outdoors section that was dropped in our laps this summer, along with anything else we need him to do (high school games, calls, design).

However, I may take a news-side job next month, so maybe they'll replace me and maybe they won't.