Goodbye Fishwrap…

[Batman]

Oh, just imagine if reporters were paid per inch like newspapers charge for obits?

That was how they paid us at my college paper. I was tasked with writing a weekly NFL column that I turned into a picks column. A 300-word intro, plus 25-50 words on each of 15 games, equaled a 40-inch cash cow.
I guess I entertained my editor enough with it that he never told me to cut it out.

 

[Flip Wilson]

Oh, just imagine if reporters were paid per inch like newspapers charge for obits?

I have a couple of freelance gigs that pay by the word, but the story ashignments come with word limits. I try to get as close to that limit as po$$ible.

 

[I Should Coco]

Oh, just imagine if reporters were paid per inch like newspapers charge for obits?

I have worked with many reporters who write like they are paid by the inch, even though they are not.

Keep it tight, folks!

 

[Brooklyn Bridge]

I have an online-only subscription to Hearst, but they own basically every paper in Connecticut. State, regional, its all done by Hearst. Pretty good sports section too.

The Hartford Courant is a shell of its former self.

 

[Brooklyn Bridge]

That's why I stopped getting the New Yorker. A lot of great stuff in each issue -- though I'd argue most of their stories could benefit from losing about 20% -- but it was hard to finish an issue before the next arrived. Soon, the stack is a foot high.

I had a subscription at one time to Vanity Fair, which had some really great articles. But I fell into the same trap, you want to read it, don't have time and before you know it, you have a year's worth of magazines to go through.

 

[I Should Coco]

I had a subscription at one time to Vanity Fair, which had some really great articles. But I fell into the same trap, you want to read it, don't have time and before you know it, you have a year's worth of magazines to go through.

Same thing happened to me with High Country News. Strong magazine, but they kept piling up. I still have online access, so can check out good stories when I want to.

 

[DanOregon]

That was how they paid us at my college paper. I was tasked with writing a weekly NFL column that I turned into a picks column. A 300-word intro, plus 25-50 words on each of 15 games, equaled a 40-inch cash cow.
I guess I entertained my editor enough with it that he never told me to cut it out.

Yes, you were paid "by the inch" but not PAID the way newspapers CHARGE per inch for obits. I wrote an 8-10 inch obit for my sister and it cost about a week's salary. I knocked out about 10-15 stories of that length a week in my newspaper days.

 

[dixiehack]

That same fear that so much would go to waste is what keeps me from pulling the trigger on a Bitter Southerner subscription.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

Same reason I dipped out on Highlights for Children.

You just know that do-good forker Gallant was full of ship.

 

[dixiehack]

You just know that do-good forker Gallant was full of ship.

Virtue signaling

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

Virtue signaling

Goofus has a blue check on Twitter.

Gallant canceled his subscription to The Washington Post (but still has 17 packages a week delivered by Amazon and shops exclusively at Whole Foods).

 

[Alma]

Got to point it was irrelevant, everything I was reading I already knew. Sports especially.

Hard to break news in the newspaper gig anymore - even on the website - but I'm not sure there's a lot of trying, either.