Free 50 by Avery Corman

Grandma Peters, an 81-year-old marathoner representing “Grandma Peters Exercise Equipment,” and Tony Rosselli for Kwan Doo Duk, “the world’s tallest midget wrestler-marathoner.”
    Doug wrote a column related to the Marathon, ignoring the publicity seekers. He discussed the prize money in track as a means of resurrecting the reputation of a forgotten distance runner of the 1950s, Wes Santee. Santee had been America’s foremost miler. The A.A.U., which presided over American track-and-field athletes, had accused him of accepting a total of fifteen hundred dollars over “allowable” expenses for seven track meets. Santee insisted at the time that he had not committed a crime, expense money was routinely accepted by competitors. Doug pointed out that in later years it became required, along with substantial prize money. Santee’s position was a challenge to the power of the A.A.U., which terminated his career, barring him from track for the rest of his life. As Doug wrote, Santee was banished for crimes that ceased to be crimes and perhaps never were.
    Reynolds and Wall passed through New York, Texas-tornado style, conducting a fast-paced meeting before going on to Boston where they were going to have a similar meeting. They presented the results of a new survey showing readership of articles within the newspaper. Wall pointed out that sports which tallied high on a recent “Which sport do you follow?” survey did not always perform well in “finishing the article” statistics.
    “Our conclusion is,” Wall said, “the articles were not well-written enough.”
    “So there are going to be replacements in our bureaus, unless people can improve their ‘finishing the article’ stats,” Reynolds said.
    Wall presented another set of tallies, “finishing the article” for Sports Day compared with the Chicago Tribune and USA Today.
    “We do better than the Chicago Trib, which is not surprising, since we’re a special-interest newspaper, but not as well as USA Today, ” Wall told them.
    “Why do you think that is, fellas? Doug, surely you have an opinion here,” Reynolds said.
    “You’re comparing apples and oranges. What USA Today is all about is the short piece. They do a very good job on short, compact pieces and features. If you’re looking for ‘finishing the article,’ of course, they’re going to score better. That’s what they do.”
    “I think you’re right, Doug,” Reynolds said. “And that’s why we’re initiating a new policy. All news stories and features will be cut fifteen percent in length. All columns five percent. Only five percent, Doug, because we see the reading patterns for columns are a little different, a little more brand loyalty.”
    “These changes will be effective immediately,” Wall said. “The computers will be programmed so that if you file copy that’s over your line quota, you’ll get an indication on the screen.”
    “It’s exciting, fellas, to identify a pattern and to be able to act scientifically,” Reynolds said. “We’re going to pass the Inquirer next, guys. Keep it up!”
    Reynolds and Wall left the conference room.
    “Not so bad,” Wilkes said. “We get the same amount of money for writing less.”
    “That’s an opportunistic way of looking at it,” Lahey said. “So long as you don’t mind your copy getting cut.”
    “Mr. Gardner,” Sally, the receptionist, called to him, “Mr. Reynolds is still here. He wants to see you.”
    Reynolds was standing in Doug’s office.
    “I wanted to mention that track column. Wes Santee? This is not a history seminar we’re running here. It was very self-indulgent.”
    “That’s what a column is, Robby. By definition it’s self-indulgent or it wouldn’t be a column in the first place. It would be a news story.”
    Reynolds looked at Doug as if he were being entertained.
    “Sounds to me like while I’m trying to educate you, you’re trying to educate me. Who do you think is ahead?” And he