Responses
courtney, 2/28/2005, 6:41:45 PM
We are three times weekly and we usually finish around 2 a.m. but sometimes it lasts until 4 a.m.
There was a while, though, when were getting done at midnight consistently. That is when reporters actually meet the deadline, 5 p.m., so page designers know what they have to work with.
I've found it just helps to be strict with reporters, photographers and cpoy editors about using their time wisely.
kristy, 3/1/2005, 10:04:18 AM
We're a weekly broadsheet - at the beginning of the semester we were finishing at 4 a.m. The new EIC finally got tired of staying until then (thank God) and got a system in place that set story deadlines for Friday, copyediting over the weekend, budget meetings on Sunday afternoons and page layouts on production day.
It was because the reporters began consistently meeting deadlines, and finally understood the impact they had when they turned in stories late, that we went from 4a.m. to 1a.m. Whether this happens consistently or not for the rest of the semester - I don't know...but it's a good start.
Brian, 3/1/2005, 6:50:28 PM
Consider staggered deadlines (i.e., A&E, Op-Ed and other sections due the day before; news and sports due day of). It may give you more daily work, but ease the late nights.
Timothy Guy, 3/1/2005, 9:37:16 PM
The Editor-in-Chief I replaced had us there until 9 am one press "night". Usually it was 1-3 am. I changed that to the latest of 8pm through making sure that a schedule was created, people stuck with deadlines, cutting pages if deadlines were not met and a great copy editing system.
Timothy Guy
Editor-in-Chief
Viewpoints
Riverside, CA
Rob Velella, 3/2/2005, 3:32:02 PM
I agree with everyone; being strict about deadlines is the best way to do it. One thing I've noticed is that section editors who also write are usually the biggest problem - all their writers' stories are in on time, but they don't even start theirs until layout time. This is a definite no-no, not just for time reasons, but because it gives the wrong impression to new writers that it's okay to miss deadlines.
Another reason might be that they are making layout too difficult. Make sure they know all the tools of the trade, so to speak, and that they know efficient ways to put together great layout. Maybe a refresher training course on layout?
Rob Velella
Director of College Newspaper & Radio Station
Washington & Jefferson College
rvelella@washjeff.edu
, 3/2/2005, 10:32:33 PM
Wow, and I thought my newspaper was bad! Last year we were consistantly finishing at around 2 AM. We moved the deadline forward a day and created a strict section layout deadline of the night before so that our Layout Editor, Photo Editor, Copy Editor, etc. can spend all day fixing things before it's sent in that night. This has been working really well, and usually we're done by midnight.
I feel bad for those of you who layout on weekend or until 4 AM - my staff would be miserable!
Martin Cizmar, 3/3/2005, 10:33:11 PM
I'm the EIC of an independent twice-weekly broadsheet. We’re usually eight pages in two sections with full color fronts and most of our issues are all local copy. (www.buchtelite.com)
When I started at my college paper five years ago 3 a.m. was a typical night. We’ve gotten a little faster every year. Now, our deadline is 10 p.m. although we often don't finish until 10:30 p.m. If we're covering something on deadline, we may go to 11 p.m.
Last night, we were at the office until 1 a.m. but that was because the entire campus lost power at 10 p.m., just as we were finishing up, and we didn't get power back until 12:15 a.m. and at the point our server was messed up.
Anyway, when I hear about these deadlines all I can think about is how hard this is on your staff. Students simply can’t work that late and be expected to go to class in the morning. Back when we were getting out that late it was VERY hard to keep good people on our staff. A few really promising staffers flunked out of school because they never made it to class and a few just burnt out. Things were rough.
Bottom line: daily papers with huge staffs to shoulder the burden might be able to handle the late nights, but a twice-weekly needs to be judicious with its resources. You can’t have college kids working till 3 a.m. – when are they supposed to go to the bar?
The issues we had to address were staffer attitudes and copy flow. These things are a big part of what makes the college newspaper experience what it is and changing them will be an uphill battle. I would bet the late nights are part of your paper’s culture and that some people really enjoy them, no matter how much they complain. Some people love the late-night rituals of the paper – they’re either night owls by nature or that they just feel more like “real” journalists if they burn the midnight oil.
There is no quick fix to a newspaper’s culture. If people are used to your current deadlines you are going to have to work really hard to change their attitudes. It may take years... But you’ve got to start somewhere. Now, our staff is so used to the early deadlines that they couldn’t imagine a 1 a.m. production night!
Here’s how things work for us now:
3:30 – Budget meetings/seminars. Editors only on Monday, all staff on Wednesday.
4:30 – Copy and Photo deadline. Copy Editors read printed copies of stories and return to sections editors who make changes.
5 – Start designing pages. Use rough drafts of stories for spacing.
7 – All copy should be returned to editors and corrected in word processor.
8 – Reimport stories to quark, upload pictures, write headlines and decks.
9 – Print first proofs. Copy desk makes a second round of changes, quibbles with headlines, suggests design changes, etc.
9:30 – Print second proofs. Make sure everything is as perfect as it’s going to get.
10 – Save to eps., save to .pdf, send to printer and web designer over ftp:// server
10:30 – Quarters on the table, drinks in the glasses.
Some litle tips:
•Have dedicated layout people. I know some papers try to get by without graphic designers – just spend the money on the people who know Quark or InDesign!
•Have the section editors read through the copy CLOSELY on screen before giving printouts to the copy desk.(I assume your copy desk is not digital). The section editor is either going to fix the stuff to start with or after three other people have wasted their time with it...
•Have photo spec forms that the designers/section editors fill out. We used to just yell “What size do you need that basketball guy?” across the office. We found the forms have saved a lot of time and noise.
•Don’t do multiple rounds of copy editing on each story. Fix the small stuff once or, if a story needs a re-write, have the section editor do it on screen himself first before wasting the copy desk’s time.
•Don’t tolerate late stories from reporters. People will think they can get away with whatever they see other people getting away with. Unless it’s a late-breaking story it needs to be in by 5 p.m.
•Staggering deadlines didn’t work for us. People resented the differences and were always bickering about how long it should take who to do what. Everyone was always looking for an exception and the managing editor had too many schedules to monitor when it came to enforcement. Now, we expect our opinion page and whichever section has the inside of our B section (sports or arts) to be done by 8 p.m. but, technically, they have as long as anyone else.
Stephen Yeargin, The Pacer, 3/26/2005, 7:25:43 PM
Our woes were solved when we switched printers. The Jackson Sun now requires us to be done and uploaded prior to 9 p.m., or we're charged $100 for delivery. The statement is made that whichever section editor comes up short on a deadline has to go get the newspaper. This only happened once (we've gone to get it two or three times, but the rule was only applied once), now we're in bed by 10 on print nights.
Stephen Yeargin
Editor, The Pacer
http://pacer.utm.edu/
Natalie, 3/28/2005, 3:05:26 PM
We are a weekly broadsheet with about 12 members on the masthead.
In the past we would be done at around 1 or 2am. However, this semester, we have had 3am-6am nites (6am is our print deadline). One reason for this is not enforcing deadlines.
One thing that helped in the past was requiring sections such as entertainment and commentary to be done by monday nights. This way the copy editors had time to check all out and spend Tues nights working with News and Sports. In the past, as a section editor (our section editors do all layout too), I would start the Ent layouts fri and then play with them as things came it. It really hlped to speed things up, instead of waiting for everything and then starting, like our staf does this semester.
Now as photo editor, I implimented the practice of photos first then layout. So, I come in over the weekend and as soon as photos are taken and crop, edit and chose a variety of photos for the sectrion editors to use. They are ready by Sat or Sunday and they have the opportunity to start their layouts even before they have the stories etc. This also helps me get out earlier (when the staff actually gives me all their assignments before the last minute).
