So, y'all, here's the deal.

RCW has stringers all over the place. That doesn't include Atlanta. I'm supposed to have lunch with RCW's US editor next week while in London. Now, RCW.com does not have any stringers. RCW.com only has editors in London and New York.

My goal is to convince both the US editor and my boss that (a) there should be a stringer in the ATL; (b) I should be that person; (c) this is in both their best interests. As the US editor already has lots of stringers and my boss has a vested interest in keeping me in New York, this won't be easy.

Do any of you smooth-talking folks have ideas for how I can best get what I want?

-- Anonymous, September 27, 2001

Answers

I have no suggestions, but what are RCW and stringers?

-- Anonymous, September 27, 2001

Well, you could read my journal and find out . . .

Ahem. RCW (for "Really Cool Weekly") is the name I gave the newsmagazine I work for, as its real name is more than a little bit recognizable (kind of like Hannah working for "The Brand"). A "stringer", in journalism terms, is someone who's based in a faraway location and doesn't write often enough (or is in an important enough location) to be considered a correspondent, but still contributes fairly regularly and has a working relationship with the publication: in other words, between correspondent and freelancer. RCW has correspondents in NY, LA, and DC, but stringers in, say, Chicago and Miami.

-- Anonymous, September 27, 2001

I don't know if this is the right way to go, but the people that I know that are the most successful at situation-manipulation, generally, are the ones that always get exactly what they want while making the solution look like it was someone else's idea entirely. I guess in this situation, that might mean making an Atlanta stringer look incredibly beneficial to the company, and moving to Atlanta something you would do only because it best served the company's needs - because their needs are just your first priority, of course, not because you want to live in Atlanta.

Good luck - if you pull this off, and I hope you do, please tell us how you did it!

-- Anonymous, September 27, 2001

WG! I do read your journal, but I only just started a few days before the 11th. Haven't wallowed in the archives yet.

-- Anonymous, September 27, 2001

Robyn, above post was not meant to be "How dare you not read?" but "Ooh, look at me plugging my journal yet again."

Anyway, if you go back to October 2000, there's all this stuff about my getting a job offer from RCW.com and the soul-searching that entailed.

-- Anonymous, September 27, 2001

What Kristin said. I've noticed that too.

More details than that, however, I cannot supply, not knowing the details about RCW.com like you do.

-- Anonymous, September 27, 2001

How many stories has RCW/RCW.com run with an Atlanta dateline? Would they be saving in travel costs?

-- Anonymous, September 28, 2001

Good question, Mike.

Here's the deal: stringers don't normally come to the RCW offices -- I don't think I've met one in the 10 months I've been here -- so that wouldn't be an issue. So far I've been paying my own way when I've gone down to do a story, as part of an agreement with the US editor. For him it would probably make more sense to actually have someone there than to have me in New York; the only other time this year we could run Atlanta stories was when a different writer, about to be reassigned to Bangkok, went down there earlier in the year to see family.

But -- and this is where it gets complicated. RCW and RCW.com have two separate budgets. If I were to become an Atlanta stringer, RCW wouldn't aquire any new costs, but RCW.com would have to haul my butt back to New York on a semi-regular basis. If it gets to the point that the RCW US editor wants to send me down -- since I won't get anywhere without that desire established -- then I have to talk to my boss and work out how to handle those costs with him.

If that makes any sense.

-- Anonymous, September 28, 2001

Well, as I also work for a dot-com [I'd be the RCN(ewspaper).com], here's what I'd guess would work...

I suspect that RCW.com would be very reluctant to add much in the way of travel costs (or, indeed, any costs at all, if they're anything like most dot-coms these days). That could be the biggest stumbling block.

How often would that semi-regular shuttle be to New York be? Because if it's not that often, the benefits to having you in Atlanta might outweigh the costs. If, OTOH. you'd need to fly up there every week, you could try and work out an arrangement where RCW picks up the cost rather than RCW.com (since presumably they'd benefit from having you in Atlanta and could more easily absorb the cost), or do something like split the travel cost between the three of you.

-- Anonymous, September 28, 2001

Well, my boss comes to the NY office about once a month. We regularly have videoconferences, et al., and I could join in on those from an Atlanta office, no biggie. A co-worker is actually working from home today.

As for costs, seeing as how I'm already paying to fly back and forth between NY and Atlanta monthly, I think I'd be able to volunteer to spring for at least some of that tab.

I think the main hurdle would be psychological -- we're already split up to begin with, and I don't think my boss would be all that thrilled to have one person not with the rest of the group, as it were.

-- Anonymous, September 28, 2001

Bumping this up -- I'm going to London next week, and the US editor has invited me to stop by his office.

When we talked last October he (the US editor / "de Tocqueville" in my journal) seemed pleased at the idea of me going down but said he couldn't do anything at the time due to budget constraints. I was committed to my apartment through April anyway. As it's now March, I've written several more pieces for him since then, and my roommate knows I'm not planning to stick around long, I'm hoping to make more progress on this trip.

Does anyone else telecommute? How was it set up? How well is it working?

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2002

Man, WG. I hope that, if you do get to be an ATL stringer, you at least get to go to London and NYC every once in a while. Because, damn, Atlanta's great - I mean, Ludacris is here and everything - but it's no London, right?

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2002

. . . but it's no London, right?

Well, I only made two trips to London from NYC last year, and probably will only make two this year regardless of where I'm coming from. Actually I may not get another trip after this one, because our 2002-03 budget is so tight. That's regardless of where I am.

More likely I'd be coming back to NYC to visit. And, frankly, since I paid last year for more trips down to the ATL than I care to count right now, I'd rather be there and pay to fly up than be here and pay to fly down.

I think at this point it's more a question of office politics than anything else. And that worries me.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2002