For $40.....

[Roscablo]

I'm amazed there are still papers out there with a late enough deadline to wait for all that work.

7 pm game might end at … 9:15? If you're lucky?

If you absolutely haul ass dead sprint between 2 coaches and 2 players who by definition aren't close to one another and who you know are walking to the locker room or the bus you could wrap that in 20 minutes? (Gig is basically up time wise if you don't get the coach or player before they enter the locker room.)

Everything breaks your way and you might be sitting down at a laptop at 9:40 with 300 words to write, photos to edit and audio and video to upload in, as was often the case in my experience, 15-20 minutes?

Ideally you'd have already picked a first half photo or three and have those sent or ready to during halftime (no water breaks for you, damn it!!) and maybe you've hacked out a graf or two already, but that's all assuming you were able to find time and a place to sit down when you were also on the sideline for photos and video, and/or there was actually a seat in the press box for you.

All that stress for $40. Yikes.

Sometimes I miss the biz and that big-game rush but man I don't miss the stress. I used to just go catatonic for 20-40 minutes after sending my last thing. Ugh.

I just don't get it. This is everything goes well too.

I don't think I would have done it in college.

 

[Batman]

I'm amazed there are still papers out there with a late enough deadline to wait for all that work.

7 pm game might end at … 9:15? If you're lucky?

If you absolutely haul ass dead sprint between 2 coaches and 2 players who by definition aren't close to one another and who you know are walking to the locker room or the bus you could wrap that in 20 minutes? (Gig is basically up time wise if you don't get the coach or player before they enter the locker room.)

Everything breaks your way and you might be sitting down at a laptop at 9:40 with 300 words to write, photos to edit and audio and video to upload in, as was often the case in my experience, 15-20 minutes?

Ideally you'd have already picked a first half photo or three and have those sent or ready to during halftime (no water breaks for you, damn it!!) and maybe you've hacked out a graf or two already, but that's all assuming you were able to find time and a place to sit down when you were also on the sideline for photos and video, and/or there was actually a seat in the press box for you.

All that stress for $40. Yikes.

Sometimes I miss the biz and that big-game rush but man I don't miss the stress. I used to just go catatonic for 20-40 minutes after sending my last thing. Ugh.

We've managed to hold onto our 12:30 a.m. deadline, thank goodness, and don't do video at all. If I take the right shortcuts I can get back to the office by 10 p.m., take a pish and grab a Coke, and then strap in for 2 1/2 hours of sheer terror that everything breaks just right and every coach answers the phone on the first try.
Even after 25 years, every Friday night when I send my last page, I feel like I'm in an action movie where the clock is ticking down and I have to cut the red wire or the green wire to stop the bomb with 3 seconds left on the timer.
Some of the people asking these things of their staff — and especially their stringers, who are often worse at this than the full-timers — have apparently been told at a corporate seminar that sports writers have all grown three extra hands and have access to a TARDIS.

 

[I Should Coco]

One game Friday night kicked off at 7, last whistle at 10:25.
Ten. Twenty. Five.

That's another issue: Not only have deadlines gotten earlier since I was stringing in the 1990s, but now we have high school coaches trying to run the spread offense and throwing 50+ times a game. Ugh.

 

[Batman]

One game Friday night kicked off at 7, last whistle at 10:25.
Ten. Twenty. Five.

Our state high school association screwed us over. Some time around 2010 they finally relented and moved kickoffs for every game from 7:30 to 7 p.m. Then, for some random reason, this summer they decided to move it back to 7:30 in the name of player safety. Because there is so much difference between it being 92 degrees at 7 p.m. and 90 degrees at 7:30.
Come October all of the games start at 7 again. But this first month is going to be hairy as far as deadline goes.

 

[jr/shotglass]

This is what a newspaper wants from its HS stringers of Friday night for $40

1) tweets after every score
2) Post game audio from coach and player from each team.
3) Photos and video if possible
4) Then 250-300 words.

Uh, no thanks

Well, it's kind of obvious that you can add two more "jobs" -- keeping play-by-play, keeping game stats.

That's ridiculous compensation.

 

[Twirling Time]

One game Friday night kicked off at 7, last whistle at 10:25.
Ten. Twenty. Five.

That's the norm in the age of the spread. I've walked out of stadiums before and started the car and the neighboring team's game on the radio was still in the third quarter.

Long ways off from the Wing-T days when we'd be done and dusted with the game by 9:30 and watching TV scores in the coaches' office at 10:15.

 

[Batman]

That's the norm in the age of the spread. I've walked out of stadiums before and started the car and the neighboring team's game on the radio was still in the third quarter.

Long ways off from the Wing-T days when we'd be done and dusted with the game by 9:30 and watching TV scores in the coaches' office at 10:15.

We actually have a Wing-T team in town. And they're a state championship contender this year. And they're in a pretty bad district other than themselves and maybe two other teams. AND the state association instituted a running clock rule for blowouts. I'm very, very excited to cover this team.
I foresee at least a couple of games being over by 9 p.m. I think they had a couple last year when this team was up about 40 at halftime and the coaches agreed to run the clock in the second half.

 

[Slacker]

We've managed to hold onto our 12:30 a.m. deadline, thank goodness, and don't do video at all. If I take the right shortcuts I can get back to the office by 10 p.m., take a pish and grab a Coke, and then strap in for 2 1/2 hours of sheer terror that everything breaks just right and every coach answers the phone on the first try.
Even after 25 years, every Friday night when I send my last page, I feel like I'm in an action movie where the clock is ticking down and I have to cut the red wire or the green wire to stop the bomb with 3 seconds left on the timer.
Some of the people asking these things of their staff — and especially their stringers, who are often worse at this than the full-timers — have apparently been told at a corporate seminar that sports writers have all grown three extra hands and have access to a TARDIS.

Time to find a different job. Newspapers never love you back.

 

[Noholesin1]

I think my best estimate for a high school game, door to door, is that it takes about 5-6 hours of work even if there's no real driving involved. If the game starts at 7, figure you leave the house at 6 to get there, park, get in the stadium and get settled 15 minutes before kickoff; three hours for the game and to get back to the office/home; and then an hour to write and edit photos (if necessary).
So $40 works out to about $7 or $8 an hour.

My publishers have asked me for years to find stringers to help with high school football. I've always told them I can't find any good writers I trust on deadline (which is true), but another part of it is that I'm embarrassed to offer them the $50 a game that I think is our current rate. I'd rather ask them to do it for free than offer them that pittance.
Thankfully, we have a couple of outstanding local photographers who do work for free.

Getting to a high school game 15 minutes before kickoff is fine until you run into a situation where there's no roster from the visiting team. That'll make you adjust.

 

[SixToe]

This is what a newspaper wants from its HS stringers of Friday night for $40

1) tweets after every score
2) Post game audio from coach and player from each team.
3) Photos and video if possible
4) Then 250-300 words.

Uh, no thanks

Consider that you'll maybe have four hours, possibly 4.5, invested in this game with pregame driving, the game and post-game work.

Let's just say four to make it easy. That's $10 an hour.

Remove taxes, if necessary. Consider the gas to-from and any other expense(s): hotdog, a game program if they don't provide one, etc.

You may end up paying them for doing this work. If not, you're working for a few bucks an hour.

"Yeah, but that's just part of it."

It shouldn't be, after all these years of shirt pay for stringing.

"Well, you're getting clips and experience."

Perhaps. The latter probably is most valuable, to be honest, as you learn to navigate the waters.

"It's a little extra beer money."

Pfftt. You're buying shirtty beer if this is paying for it.


Poor payment for freelancers. Unpaid internships. Terrible salaries, along with the ongoing demise of the industry thanks to Ogden, Alden, Gannett, et al. Been there, done it, thought it was BS then and still do.

Just say no.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

We actually have a Wing-T team in town. And they're a state championship contender this year. And they're in a pretty bad district other than themselves and maybe two other teams. AND the state association instituted a running clock rule for blowouts. I'm very, very excited to cover this team.
I foresee at least a couple of games being over by 9 p.m. I think they had a couple last year when this team was up about 40 at halftime and the coaches agreed to run the clock in the second half.

You were born too late to cover Delaware high school sports in the '60s. EVERY school in the state ran the Wing-T, because Dave Nelson, a longtime coach for U of D in that time period, invented the formation, and all the coaches went to his clinics. Defensive team meeting sure were boring by midseason.

 

[BTExpress]

I'm currently getting paid what Fort Lauderdale was paying me in 1989. To put that in perspective, the house I had in South Florida could have been built for $89,000 in 1989 (cost me $129,000 in 1996). It's worth $484,000 today.

It's just one reason --- but not even the main one --- why it's . . . 7 months and 4 days until retirement.