Universal desk problems

Hell man ... our paper caters barbecue on election night(s).

I want to see news people hit deadline on Friday or Saturday night during football season and see how stressful that is.

 

Has anyone read the header of this thread and thought, "Problems found on every desk"?

 

The news side in my shop is a mixture of deskers with no clue about sports and others who are fanboys who think they know just as much (or more) as anybody in sports. The concept of a universal copy desk in my shop sends chills up my spine. Luckily, it doesn't look like any of that is coming down the pike.

 

I always enjoy the looks on some of the faces. They reek of:

"Hey, they haven't covered today's exciting local election of the new city council members! Why do they get pizza??!!"

 

If the big boss at your paper bought pizza for the sports crew every night during football season, would you guys be happy?

 

That's a good question.

 

They buy us pizza when we have really big nights -- high school playoffs, bowl nights, NCAA playoff nights. I figure those are our election nights, so it's cool.

 

No. My shop buys shitty pizza. Let the newssiders have it. 8)

 

Define shitty.

After all, in some places, Domino's is a delicacy!

 

What a shock, a thread that degenerates into whining about election night pizza and how news siders don't know anything about sports. I think the idiots are pretty evenly spread across departments in any newsroom.

Oh, and it has been my experience that UDs are more effective if they allow Sports to do its own thing. Totally different dynamic from most news side production.

 

Have no experience working on a Universal Desk.
However the practice is when newsside is short-handed on the desk take a guy from sports to help out. When sports is short-handed on desk too bad, work short-handed.


One of the more strange stories I can relate to my stints on news desk. It's a Sunday and I'm editing a story about a police chase (that has already been edited by a Metro Editor like all local stories are before the copy desk even gets it). This story had been held for a day or two for some reason. The way the chase is described is impossible because the u-turn described would have involved going through a concrete barrier in the middle of the road. I get told there's nothing they can do about it because that's the way the metro editor who read it approved it and that's how it was likely written in the police report.

 

Uh, don't want to ruin anyone's misconceptions, but of the many, many, many times the news desk I'm currently on has been shorthanded, not once have we pulled anyone from Sports, nor would we. We get it done shorthanded, too.