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Topic: How many articles do you write a week
| Author | Message |
| Write On | Posted – 5/13/2008 12:32:37 AM | show profile | email poster I am a reporter for a small, local newspaper, making a salary of roughly $27,000 a year. We were told today at a staff meeting that there is not enough local content in our newspaper and we should make more of an effort to write two stories a day. How many stories a week are other reporters expected to write? |
| StoryTeller | Posted – 5/14/2008 9:26:34 PM | show profile | email poster I've worked for two small papers, one a daily and the other a weekly. When I was at the daily, making several thousand dollars less than you are now, the expectation went from one story a day to two-three stories. I found it pretty draining to meet that type of deadline and still being able to really and truly connect with my sources and the folks with which I had built relationships with in the community. That's when I left for the weekly. Not sure if that really answered your question, but I hope the insight helps in some way. |
| Canadiana | Posted – 5/14/2008 9:45:35 PM | show profile I have many different clients so I write anywhere from 3-7 articles a week (including blog posts and other content). |
| cornfrost | Posted – 5/15/2008 5:51:44 AM | show profile | email poster when i was a local reporter, i wrote at least two stories a day. more like 13 a week. |
| candylilacs | Posted – 5/15/2008 12:07:23 PM | show profile At a small newspaper, writing a story a day seems to be normal. Two stories a day isn't unusual either, although less than ideal. My hardest day was four stories (because my editor was a jerk.) You can do stacking, which is to churn out a lot Monday-Wednesday. The effort there is quantity. Then work on other projects the rest of the week -- quality. Good luck. ------ http://www.mswritesguide.blogspot.com |
| Mag Girl | Posted – 5/15/2008 12:10:48 PM | show profile When I was at a very small daily, 2 per day was the norm, and sometimes 3 on a really productive day. |
| PluckyPane | Posted – 5/15/2008 12:12:55 PM | show profile wow. 12 stories a week? how long are these? when i worked in magazines, i would write 2 a month, but they were typically 3,000-4,000 words each with no less than 6-7 interviews per story. the rest of the time i was the eic. i suppose you guys don't edit as well, right? |
| salsera | Posted – 5/15/2008 4:41:37 PM | show profile I work for a company that publishes guidebooks. I'd say that I write at least 1,200 words per day. |
| writesonwater | Posted – 5/15/2008 9:17:04 PM | show profile Lot of papers that need multiple stories need many of them to be 500 words or so, and just one source is often fine. |
| candylilacs | Posted – 5/17/2008 12:44:55 AM | show profile I beg to differ! Journalism 101 is three sources, period. Less than that and it's a brief. You can do four stories, but a) you have no time to eat lunch, b) are stressed out beyond belief and c) are constantly on the phone doing three things at once...or four. ------ http://www.mswritesguide.blogspot.com |
| aoscruggs | Posted – 5/17/2008 12:52:40 AM | show profile Two a day is too many to do correctly I'm answering the question I believe you're asking. If you're looking to move to another, bigger, better paper, it's going to be difficult to pull together a good portfolio with that kind of quota. Single source stories are no-nos. If I were you, I'd head over to poynter.org, and post the same question to Joe Grimm's column on Romenesko. He might be able to give you some advice on managing that quota while you look for another job. |
| writesonwater | Posted – 5/17/2008 12:56:18 AM | show profile | email poster When I do national cover stories for a very cool trade pub, I have 10 sources minimum. Minimum. For an inflight, I did a profile of a major sporting celeb that was just him. I've done profiles for several trade pubs that were looking for just that: one on one. When I did regional pieces for a major daily (prior to going back to weekly editing) I did two or three at least. Three was better, sometimes two was all that was possible. When I do preview pieces about upcoming events for a small-mid daily or the weekly I edit, if I can only get one because I'm doing multiple stories and that's what there's time for, that's how I roll. When you're doing an avalanche of stories, sometimes that's how it goes. ------ http://writingporch.blogspot.com/ http://jlouiselarson.blogspot.com/ http://familyrootsandwings.blogspot.com/ |
| aoscruggs | Posted – 5/17/2008 2:11:07 AM | show profile A single source story is a no-no Are your single-source stories Q and A's? That's about the only exception I can think of. When you say sources, do you mean you only quote one person? Don't you use documents or other sources of information to provide context for the topic, and to round out the story? |
| writesonwater | Posted – 5/17/2008 9:36:50 AM | show profile On sources: Okay, so the press release comes in from the tourism bureau, and I get a bit more information on the event from on the web and some history from what I know, and I round it out with a few quotes from an organizer. Is there more than one source of information? Yes. More than one interview? No. it's more than a brief, but less than a full-blown story, but in the real world of small newspapers, it will do in a pinch. It may not win a Pulitzer, but it will do in a pinch. And it does. |
| writesonwater | Posted – 5/17/2008 9:45:14 AM | show profile Now picture a feature story where you follow Cowboy Joe on his afternoon, rounding up calves to take to market. It's you and Joe. You take pics as he stops to mend a barbwire fence, you watch as he single=handedly helps a cow deliver a baby. There's no one else for miles. Just you and Cowboy Joe. No cellphones. No email. No ranch boss telling you, "That Joe, he's quite a character. Why, I remember the time ..." You go back to your laptop, write your story and upload it, magically, along with pictures, because you do have access to FTP, to your mother ship editor waiting a thousand miles away. You can write the story, right? You can turn out something riveting and transport people to the American frontier, make them feel the saddle, see the cow lick her handsome newborn calf and watch him take his few wobbly steps. Just you and Cowboy Joe. |
| writesonwater | Posted – 5/17/2008 9:51:02 AM | show profile | email poster I won first place in feature series writing (APME) for a series of articles that ran over a number of months about a dying hospice patient. In many of those articles (13 total) she was my only source. It came out about the same time as Tuesdays with Morrie, and I was told it had much the same feel, which may have been why it was a hit. I still haven't read the book. "Single source" wasn't the only rule I broke. I also sang at her funeral -- how's that for partiality. ------ http://writingporch.blogspot.com/ http://jlouiselarson.blogspot.com/ http://familyrootsandwings.blogspot.com/ |
