Headline goes here

Do we know for a fact that Headline Goes Here was in the paper, or just on the Web site?

Just asking.

Yes, lede was lame.

 

What does the quality of the writer's copy have to do with the person who made the head mistake?
Unless, of course, you're implying the overall quaity of this paper is horseshit.

 

Also, four grafs in we finally see what sport it is, and that's only because they mention the Buccaneers. Maybe I'm a complete dunce but recruiting does go on in basketball as well.

 

You mean on the copy editor who didn't write a headline for a story? Sorry, DP, the designer isn't at fault if the copy editor forgets to do part of his/her job.

That said, I, like most designers I know, spells headline without the 'a' so this gets caught by spellcheck. Of course, if the reader forgets to spellcheck, then that won't get caught. And if the reader can forget to write a headline, whose to say he'll remember spellcheck.

 

Or the designer might have forgotten to flow the headline onto the page, then sent without making a proof. Or as someone suggested a few posts ago, this might not have actually gotten into the paper and some online guy is at fault.

If we don't know what happened, it's tough to assign blame.

 

All this said, I apologize for indicting the designer solely. I've worked with a couple of very talented designers who could make incredible pages while having at best a tenuous grasp of the English language. Their excuses for handing in proofs with such egregious errors? "It's not my job to write headlines but I do it anyway. It's the desk's job to catch them." Come on...

Forgive my frustration (and the threadjack) but I'm envisioning a day when our newspapers, desperate for young readers, will all look like People or ESPN Mag with insipid, quick-hit stories of no more than 150 words with flashy graphics and big photos — and if all the words are spelled right and make complete sentences, well, that's just a bonus.

Again, into each job some shit work must fall. I'm a words guy who has to design pages on a small staff. My pages look like poo but at least the language remains intact. Apologies to those I offended.

 

Dammit!

 

I'm not prepared to go there. I'm not the one who first mentioned the lede anyway, so I was just reacting. I modified my first post because I thought I overstepped. I don't intend to overstep now.

 

Yes, we all know the designers can't be at fault.

That would go against the newsroom agenda.

 

You know, man, I agree with your sentiment almost all the time. Too many people get hung up on finely dressing piles of verbal dung. But do you REALLY have to be this way? You're weakening our collective argument.

 

Or as one brilliant former writer turned editor friend of mine once put it: dressing the corpse in a tuxedo.

 

Yeah but I wanted to be the one to say it.