Washington Post: "Marty Schottenheimer, NFL coach whose teams wilted in the postseason, dies at 77"

It's funny. It's the lowest-paid position -- if papers even have an agate guy -- but requires a lot of skill, precision and coolness under deadline pressure to make it look pretty. When the Telegram went to pagination, whatever tool Cox bought for us never took agate into account, or at least our tech support guy had no idea how to do it. Agate? Even the AJC was still building that page by hand.

We eventually realized everything could be in one long strip that could flow across all columns, and around the stupid sports on TV inset, which meant every new addition had to be re-jiggered by adding or reducing spaces in order to keep the boxes from breaking. It was easily the hardest page to paginate, particularly on Friday and Saturday nights.

 

All of a sudden the WaPo is the Mahwah Gazette that's badly understaffed with unqualified G-Leaguers. Uh-huh, sure

 

It takes a certain type of person to work the web producer job, especially at any outlet in a decent-sized metro area. Not everyone likes being a utility player, and that’s what you are. It’s akin to a universal copy desk in that respect. The Post is well staffed compared to many places, but they also have personnel dedicated to niche areas (I think they have someone during the day solely focused on Snap, perhaps another on the Kindle app) and not pitching in everywhere.

 

That regrettable Schottenheimer headline calls to mind a piece of wisdom from a former boss: "It was truthful, but that doesn't mean it was the truth."

The references here to Bud Grant and others makes me wonder what could happen if an insensitive headline writer gets hold of Marv Levy's obit: "Failed in four consecutive Super Bowls."