There was a time when covering the an election or a primary was an "all hands on deck" event for a newsroom. 

Food was served, and a lot of overtime was piled up. 

On May 17th there is a primary in Oregon and one News Director is asking for volunteers to come to the station and help cover the story.

Volunteers?

What happened to paying the staff? Is that not a thing anymore?

Here is the internal email sent out to the staff at KPTV in Portland News Director Corey Hanson:

It’s me again….did you hear Ted Cruz and John Kasich are out of the Presidential Race?
Oregon’s primary is still on for May 17th and we still are  in need of volunteers.
Several people said they would help – but we still need at least 5 more.
If you can help us manually enter election results on the evening of May 17th please let me know.
Again, we will have food and drinks available for our volunteers.

Corey Hanson
Executive News Director

Here's a thought, how about paying the employees for doing their job and then ask them to "volunteer" this weekend at a local animal shelter or habitat for humanity? 

Just a thought Corey.