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Topic: How many articles do you write a week
| Author | Message |
| Write On | Posted – 5/13/2008 12:32:44 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? |
| jcpatterson | Posted – 5/13/2008 1:38:43 AM | show profile I'm not a newspaper reporter, but in the interest of giving you a data point, I can say the most I have ever consistently written in a week (for trade mags and web sites) is about 8000 words. I had about a four month period last year when I was on that pace, and it was difficult. I would prefer to keep things in the 4-5000 word per week range. |
| TGAN | Posted – 5/13/2008 2:13:30 AM | show profile How many identical messages do you post in a day? . So far I count three? Why is that? |
| writesonwater | Posted – 5/13/2008 3:00:07 AM | show profile Cut Write On some slack. Dilbert has a way of making it seem like something hasn't posted. Stick around 10 minutes and give it a try. You'll see! Nutshell, write on, two a day isn't unheard of especially if you're at a smaller publication where staff are stretched thin and they need to generate more local content. If you're talking a 5 day week, that's 10 in a week. Considering many of those are fairly short or just involve one interview, it could be worse. Any time you go to a meeting, see how many ideas that one agenda can generate. That can help! Try and look at it like "swinging two bats" -- how a batter gets ready to hit a home run by working extra hard. I had to generate a lot of copy early in my career and it has helped me ever since. I can really crank it out -- I was once given a super-short deadline to produce 10k words for a book I was contributing to. I was so thorough and fast AND PROLIFIC I ended up getting top billing. |
| barbara9 | Posted – 5/13/2008 10:19:47 AM | show profile I started as a reporter at an 8,000-circ. small town daily. We were required to write a minimum of two eight-inch stories a day, about 500 words if I remember correctly. Usually I wrote three stories a day. I still have the printing negative from the Sunday I wrote five Page 1 stories, several of them reported and written on the Saturday production day. |
| BruisePristine | Posted – 5/13/2008 11:41:28 AM | show profile I would approach this by being mindful of requirements, but don't let it get you so worked up that you don't produce. One day, you might write no stories, but just take notes. Perhaps the next day, you'll write 4 or 5. The community weeklies here require at least 5 stories a week from each reporter, but each person is in charge of several beats, so it's not that hard. However, the "alt-weekly" only requires two at most (!!!) each week --which means that the reporters spend a lot of time fucking around and going to lunch because their jobs don't require much. At my last job (technical writing, not reporting, but like you, I called ppl for quotes and facts), I was held to 30 articles (600 words ea. give or take) right before I quit, and my boss made it known that he would have preferred 40. That's too much. If it goes above, say, 15-ish a week (especially since it takes time to collect data, quotes, etc.), your boss is taking advantage of you, especially for under 30K. But I think for now the expectations are reasonable. |
| Grateful Deadline | Posted – 5/13/2008 12:30:01 PM | show profile At my first paper, we were required to do two stories a day plus briefs. Years later in the bureau at a major metro, it was two stories a day or more, depending on what needed coverage. I think the "two" thing will follow you until you switch out of news and into another section. |
| HisGirlFriday | Posted – 5/13/2008 12:55:32 PM | show profile sad to say, sounds normal to me When I was on staff at a mid-sized daily I often wrote two or three 15-20 inch stories in a day plus a few briefs. Once I had two stories on A1 and one on B1. At least once or twice a month I'd have a big enterprise/feature story that would usually be A1. This is also why I had an ulcer and migranes before I was 30. |
| writesonwater | Posted – 5/17/2008 9:59:51 AM | show profile I'd love to hear from some of these posters about the "single source" issue. At these small papers, did you every write "single source" stories? |
| chicagowriter22 | Posted – 5/17/2008 4:06:43 PM | show profile I had to write some single source stories for a small business rag, where I was specifically told certain stories would require only one source. I don't think I'd ever show those as clips to another potential employer, but quite honestly, it was nice to have that reprieve every so often. |
| writesonwater | Posted – 5/17/2008 5:11:17 PM | show profile Would you say the less you make, the more you're expected to crank out? It may follow that the more you're expected to crank out, the less quality you produce? And then the fewer clip book quality pieces you have for your portfolio? |
| bones | Posted – 5/18/2008 9:09:52 PM | show profile | email poster When I was at small weeklies and dailies years ago, there were no such requirements that I ever heard about, but I tried to be as prolific as possible. I'd average probably 7 to 10 stories a week, plus boxes and briefs, of course. That kept the powers that be happy, and made me feel that I had my beat well covered, but probably did cut down on copy quality. Still, I watched for stories that felt like they could be great clips, and focused energy on them, making sure that they were my best work... Now I'm full-time freelance for national consumer magazines and probably average one story a week--all getting my full effort. And since that was my goal, I guess the system worked out. |
