Two cancelled subscriptions in one week because of me

Don't sweat it. YOur coverage is just fine, and these idiot callers in most cases are just venting and proving how much out of touch they are.

Seriously, don't let it get you down. Most of us in here have been through this crap about once or tice a month.

You are doing fine, and I'm speaking as someone who has I've gone from sports writer to SE to upper management.

If you do get any flak about this, I assure you, those above you are absolute pinheads (and I would have said that long before anyone knew who Bill O'Reilly was)

 

I like to tell people that until Kansas starts awarding JV and freshmen titles, there's no way they'll get more than a paragraph when they play...if they're lucky.

 

Maybe smallpotatoes should try writing on the news side. See if anyone gets pissed at what he writes and cancels their subscriptions. That would be a telling sign that you need to improve or not because not many people will cancel their subscriptions based on you not covering the garden club or the knitting circle enough.

 

I used to tell something similiar to that to the JV and junior high sports parents. I'd tell them that I was spending about 25 hours a week covering the varsity and 15 laying out the paper (not counting any overtime I worked).

I said that if I did everything for the JVs and junior highs, I'd be working 75 hours a week forcoverage, and 45 hours a week in putting out a section that would have to be three times as big for a total of 120 hours a week. Then I would tell them that if I didn't put in all those hours, that the varsity coverage would have to be cut, which meant that when their little darlings reached varsity level, they wouldn't get the same coverage that the current varsity kids did. Then I would add that my paper would not be able to afford to pay me for 120 hours a week or for a sports section to be triple the size.
That usually shut them up.

 

About once a season I get the "the JV/freshman/middle school team is having a great season and you should do an article on them" call.
I always tell them that if they like, they can submit something, but I'm not writing anything on it myself. It's all I can do to cover the varsity and once you cover one subvarsity team, you eventually have to cover them all.
If you start out saying I'll write about them if they truly have a great season, eventually the bar of what constitutes a "great season" gets lowered. First, it's the undefeated team that wins the "mythical" league title. Then it's the team with a record over .500 for the first time in a few years. Then it's the team that wins one game after not winning one in a year or two. Then it's the great group of kids who worked hard.
This is one thing that I have stood firm on, believe it or not. (Actually, I refuse to recognize other papers' polls and all-star teams in my paper, too).
Just about every time I've explained myself about these things, the argument ends.

 

I honestly don't know if this is the norm, but not even my high school newspaper covered the JV teams, and it was a small high school. The kids know that no one gives a crap about anything under the varsity level, and their parents need to get a grip.

 

It's the "can of worms" theory.

Break the glass ceiling on one sub-varsity team, and the ensuing wave will knock you over.

 

Earlier this week, I wanted to grab a quote from the hometown school's varsity football coach about one of his kids being selected to play in an all-star game. Caught him at the end of junior high hoops practice; he gave me the couple of sentences I needed, then asked if I was planning on covering his basketball team.

Ahhhh, fuuuuuuudge. Knew that was coming. I reminded him I have a full-time job on top of the newspaper gig and told him, "I'll be honest with you -- junior high is pretty far down on my list, so I doubt it." I don't think he liked my answer. Tough.

 

Bingo.

And, hell, I enjoyed covering youth sports.

 

Smallpotatoes:
Look--you've gotten a lot of counsel and empathy in this thread. It's time for you to move on and let go of this.

 

The problem with parents who want 8th grade-Freshman-JV coverage is they are interested for a year or two, tops, until Junior makes Varsity. Then they'd get pissed if you cut inches from Varsity coverage to devote to sub-varsity. They are so myopic they don't realize that in a year they'll get what they want.

 

Somewhat related, I think papers get caught up in prep coverage to the detriment of many of their readers. Outside of football Fridays and a few other sports in certain states (basketball in Indiana, volleyball in Nebraska), the desire to push prep coverage ignores the fact that you're often catering to a small percentage of readers (some, but not all of the parents of those participating) while ignoring the news (or at least underplaying it) that most of your readers are interested in on a given day.