Story assignments

[JunO]

Just curious how other small dailies handle their story assignments.

At my paper, we have a managing editor and two copy editor/page designers on the news side. But really, it seems the reporters (we have four full-time and one part-time) are in charge of their own assignments and even when the stories will run. The ME, as well as my fellow copy editor/page designer and I, make story suggestions, but it's not unusual for the reporters to shuffle them around for their own convenience.

The reporters we have now are well organized and pretty good about communicating among themselves what they're working on, but it can be frustrating because they're also young and/or new to the area. As a result, it's sometimes weeks or months before we get a story on something that's very visible in the community, like a new business, and I've suggested looking deeper into an issue a time or two and just get a shrug in response.

[Gerri Berendzen]

Do you keep a running budget?

Here, our reporters generate their own story ideas, as well as getting assignments from the managing editor or a specialty page editor, but everything goes on the master weekly budget and the managing editor determines when it runs.

So if a reporter's story is delayed for some reason, that info goes through the managing editor and he readjusts the budget.

I think the idea of keeping a master budget is a good idea. But on top of that, I think no matter how small your paper, there has to be one person in charge of when something runs.

[JunO]

We do have a running budget of sorts. It's an online calendar that anyone in the newsroom can post to. But the problem with it is there is not one specific person in charge of determining when stories will run. That seems to be the main problem.

Could you send me an example of your budget? Maybe I could propose some changes in our newsroom.

juno@dailynews.net.

[Gerri Berendzen]

Even at the smallest paper, it seems that there has to be one person charting the course. I'm not sure how you do it if the reporters all make their own decisions about what they cover. Don't you run the chance of coming in one day, finding everyone is working on a future story and having no locally bylined content for the paper? Or having two reporters working on essentially the same story?

The staff at the newspaper I work for is about twice the size of the one at your paper, but I still think someone would have to ramrod things at a paper your size.

For us, that's the managing editor. Even when other editors handles sections, their budgets filter through the ME to make sure there's no conflicts, etc.

Is there anyone out there at a paper that handles this in a different, but still effective, manner?

[JunO]

Don't you run the chance of coming in one day, finding everyone is working on a future story and having no locally bylined content for the paper? Or having two reporters working on essentially the same story?

Oh, yes. Mid-December to about two weeks ago was the toughest period I can remember for not having local copy. More than one local byline a day was unusual. There just wasn't a lot of that "we need to plan to for the slow holiday season" going on. And we have had reporters double up on stories. Luckily, it's resulted only in embarrassment for the reporters when one is told "someone already called about this."

I guess the issue I've been dodging here is that, in my opinion, our managing editor is not doing the job he should be, which is running the newsroom, and I don't really know how to address it. He and I have gotten into it a couple times before on minor issues stemming from this, and I have basically been told that how he runs the newsroom is none of my business.

I know my co-worker on the desk is frustrated, and some of the reporters are too. I'm hesitant about saying anything because I don't want to wind up on the list if there's layoffs in our future just because I annoy the boss.

[Richard Douglas]

Here at the Temple Daily we also have a running budget (one for the daily paper and one for the weekend). The only problem with this system is that what is on the budget is often different than how the actual story turns out. A lot of problems can arise from a pure lack of basic communication (what's the point in having a budget if what's on it isn't valid). This also tends to happen with photo assignments (but I'll save that for another forum rant).