Antiquated

I’ve been asking the Manhattan-based ABCKO people about receiving a screener of Charlie Is My Darling (out Nov. 6). A few minutes ago they asked what my deadline is. It hit me in a flash that the name of Nikki Finke’s site is old news. “Deadline?,” I responded. “There are no more deadlines. There’s only the constant barrage and the constant keyboard and the constant turnaround. I’m trying to see and respond to your film before it opens. I’m doing 24/7 reporting, commenting, orgasm-reviewing, whatever. There’s only ‘what’s now?’ and ‘what’s next?’”

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33 thoughts on “Antiquated”

  1. Sadly true. Great for the consumer, hard on the provider. Made me think of my newspaper days when on any given day, what was appearing that day was what I had written yesterday, while tomorrow was what I was working on today, so I existed in three time frames essentially. Now it’s just slam it out as fast as possible.

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  3. This is a constant problem for newswires, such as where I work, because many PR firms and publicists think only in the future and like to put things on a schedule to do later because then there’s a persistent level of certainty to their world, I can only assume. That or they’re just too “busy” to handle something right away. Those excuses are ridiculous to anyone who runs on a breaking news cycle because it makes them sound out-of-touch or just clueless to the existing media cycle.

    If they ask “When’s your deadline?” I always answer “Right abouuuuut…now.”

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  4. No deadlines? Guess you don’t do anymore print journalism these days. And even with websites: I know that if I don’t email copy to some editors before a certain time every day, it won’t get posted until the next day. In defense of the publicist: She might deal with more writers who have to worry about such things than don’t.

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  6. Jeff, this is a bit of a bank shot, but your post instantly made me think of this nice blog post from Jim Romensko’s page. Give it a go.

    I’ve never been in the newspaper or printing business, but there’s definitely something alluring about newsrooms [of old?].

    My first exposure to this feeling: the newsroom I saw in ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN [a rerun my father was watching on the tv, I must have been about eight].

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  9. No deadlines? Guess you don’t do anymore print journalism these days. And even with websites: I know that if I don’t email copy to some editors before a certain time every day, it won’t get posted until the next day. In defense of the publicist: She might deal with more writers who have to worry about such things than don’t.
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