Who has to answer the phone?

[Jim Thomsen]

And take calls from the public?

I do, after about 7:30 p.m. each weeknight at work. And for the entirety of my weekend shifts.

Fortunately, the phone doesn't ring all that often.

The calls break down into a few general categories:

1) I didn't get my paper.

2) Can you transfer me to sports?

3) This story in the paper was wrong, and I want a correction.

4) My car mechanic/dry cleaner/insurance carrier/cable company is screwing me, and I want an investigative reporter put on this story immediately.

I'm usually rude and abrupt with those I can't get off the line within the first 30 seconds.

You have to create your job perks where you can.

[LisaMc]

At my last paper the set the main newsroom number to roll over to the copy desk after business hours "so callers could talk to a person." Most callers were similar to Jim's:
"I didn't get my paper" (It's 9 o'clock at night and you're just now noticing this? We'll have a fresh one tomorrow.)
"Sports" (easy one)
"There's a clue missing on the crossword puzzle." (Rule No. 1 of newspapering: Don't mess up/mess with the crossword puzzle)

And we got the occasional crackpot caller who said they were getting screwed by their ex-wife/the cops/their neighbors/some business. Best thing to do with those was to just lay the phone down, let them vent (because you will not get a word in edgewise), and then, when they're through, tell them to call the cops/business/community reporter in the morning (they never did). One woman screamed at me so long and loud that she called the editor the next day to apologize. Our offense: We ran a story about a teacher at a high school getting convicted of having sex with a student, and at the end of the story we had a graf mentioning that six months earlier, another teacher at the same school was convicted of the same thing. The caller was that guy's wife, who really, REALLY didn't think we had to dredge that all up again.

One trick I learned from an editor at that paper to get rid of people who won't hang up is to hang up on them *while YOU are talking* and then it won't seem like you cut them off, just that it was a mistake.

Honestly, as if we didn't have enough to do already.

[Gerri Berendzen]

I always laugh at ACES conferences when someone from a bigger paper cringes at the idea of answering phones. Welcome to my world, guys.

One great thing about working for a smaller paper is you get to do a lot of varied things. A drawback — one of those varied things is answering the phones.

My fellow copy editors always marvel at my level of phone diplomacy (I think because I'm not really that diplomatic at all in person). I think I learned that working the customer counter at a chain hardware store during my college days. Those callers are our customers; do we really want to piss them off so that they'll drop the paper?

I've found over the years that most people (except, possibly, the "I didn't get my paper tonight" ones) are reasonable and will gladly accept an "I'm on deadline right now, can I take your number and have someone call you back?"

That being said, when I was at a twice weekly in St. Louis, a guy called and asked us to put his store's ad in the free event calendar. I told him "no" it was for community events only and told me "I hope you die." (Exact quote.) Then he hung up.

[Brian White]

For those of you who transfer the calls back to Sports, most of the calls are some drunk guy who wants us to settle a bar bet. (Who was the winning pitcher of Game 4 in the 1971 World Series? Bruce Kison? Muffled: I told you! You're buying the next round!)

Last week, we got not one, not two, but three calls two nights after the All-Star Game asking us who won. These calls were from little old ladies, as far as the guys who answered the phones could tell.

Our agate-desk guys handle these calls very politely, unless we are on deadline. This is because we assume they are readers, and we do not want to lose them/have them call the editor the next morning to complain about being hung up on.

[Jim Thomsen]

I find there's no avoiding being rude to at least a third of my night callers. They're all wound up about something, and they'll blather on without pause for several minutes — no opportunity for me to jump in and say, "I'm sorry you feel that way, but ....". I don't have time for that, because I'm trying to put out the next day's paper.

So I usually say: "I'm sorry, but I'm on deadline for the next day's paper. Good night." Click. Or if they're really in my face, I'll say: "I don't have time for this. Why don't you write a letter to the editor?" Click.

I've been doing this for years, and if it's cost us subscriptions, I've never heard about it. If someone rants to the editor the next day about the rude bastard on the phone from the night before, I've never heard about it.

My customer service begins and ends with preparing the best possible paper for readers. I'm not a public utility.

[Gerri Berendzen]

I guess I just don't like a hang up myself, so I don't do it to others. And I've talked to plenty of people I couldn't help and who were incredibly rude.

I have less patience for the "why don't you write about this (whatever their agenda is)" people than the "I didn't get my paper" people. After all, I'm ticked when I don't get my paper (and I don't have to pay for it like they do!) I'm sure I expect answers when I walk into a store with a complaint.

When I get the bar bets, I just look them up on the Internet myself (I'm a sports fan though). At least we have an Internet now. In the 80s, people used to treat the newspaper like we were the library. I can't tell you know many kids I used to help at term paper time.

[LisaMc]

... people used to treat the newspaper like we were the library.

I always find that sort of flattering: They call us because they know we have the right information.

[Paul Ybarrondo]

At the L.A. Times (rapidly joining the ranks of small newspapers), a lot of calls to the newsroom roll over to the copy desk after hours. Lots of crackpot conspiracy theorists, information seekers and lonely people. Hardly anyone's actually angry. Must be the mellow California vibe.

[Jim Thomsen]

people used to treat the newspaper like we were the library.

It would be fun to help people this way if I had the time. But I don't. It's the same reason I have blather-callers on a short leash. I can either humor them, or I can make deadline. I simply can't do both.

[Sara Hendricks]

If you can't be polite, don't answer the phone.