**It Happens

[WolvEagle]

Interesting reaction from Matt DeRienzo, in charge of JRC's Connecticut papers:

--Also, we haven't downsized copy editors in Torrington, so it should not be characterized that we've put people out of work there. We've launched new products in the past few years, so it's absolutely true there is a bigger workload for the copy editors we do have.--

Uh, Matt, isn't adding workload without adding people the equivalent of cutting?

 

[Baron Scicluna]

There are still readers who care what is in the paper. They deserve the best product possible. If readers call and ask about the proofreaders, then I'm not biting my lip. They deserve to know the truth about their community institution.

This.

Just tell callers "We are understaffed and overworked and we f'ed up."

So that is going to make them feel better?

If you bought a new car and it was a piece of crap and you called the head of Kia to complain and they said that they severely cut back on the quality control on the production line so that the likelihood of turning out lemons was just a lot higher, you'd thank them and happily drag the car to the garage?

Or, if enough people bench to Kia, maybe they start taking a look at their quality control and, instead of blaming the poor schlubs working there, point the fingers at themselves and put a little more money into it to make sure a good product is put out.





Awww, who are we fooling? Executive bonuses need to be paid out.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

There are still readers who care what is in the paper. They deserve the best product possible. If readers call and ask about the proofreaders, then I'm not biting my lip. They deserve to know the truth about their community institution.

This.

Just tell callers "We are understaffed and overworked and we f'ed up."

So that is going to make them feel better?

If you bought a new car and it was a piece of crap and you called the head of Kia to complain and they said that they severely cut back on the quality control on the production line so that the likelihood of turning out lemons was just a lot higher, you'd thank them and happily drag the car to the garage?

Or, if enough people bench to Kia, maybe they start taking a look at their quality control and, instead of blaming the poor schlubs working there, point the fingers at themselves and put a little more money into it to make sure a good product is put out.

Yeah, that'll happen ...

 

[Stitch]

There are still readers who care what is in the paper. They deserve the best product possible. If readers call and ask about the proofreaders, then I'm not biting my lip. They deserve to know the truth about their community institution.

This.

Just tell callers "We are understaffed and overworked and we f'ed up."

So that is going to make them feel better?

If you bought a new car and it was a piece of crap and you called the head of Kia to complain and they said that they severely cut back on the quality control on the production line so that the likelihood of turning out lemons was just a lot higher, you'd thank them and happily drag the car to the garage?

Or, if enough people bench to Kia, maybe they start taking a look at their quality control and, instead of blaming the poor schlubs working there, point the fingers at themselves and put a little more money into it to make sure a good product is put out.

Yeah, that'll happen ...

It would be interesting to do a study on alertness levels and the effects of stress on the copy editors at the design hub.

 

[Stitch]

No excuses here as someone should have caught this error and inserted a comma between Park and the.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/may/23/time-cole-hamels-lets-only-his-pitching-do-talking/

Wednesday night at Citizens Bank Park the message Hamels delivered was different. Perhaps humbled by the backlash he's received in the last two-and-a-half weeks, Hamels didn't talk with purpose pitches, he just silenced the Nationals with all of them.

 

[Point of Order]

I agree. I don't care how many pages you have to read in a given night, there's no excuse for a professional to miss something like that in display type. That's like missing an extra point. It happens, but it shouldn't.

And I say this as guy who once let through "So-and-so had three shirts and 2 runs ... " in the lede of a baseball gamer. I know it happens. But that doesn't make it suck any less.

What the heck did that guy eat before the game?

I remember that guy -- Diarrhea Jones.

I saw him shirt for the cycle in Chattanooga.

 

[Bamadog]

When it's in a headline, sorry, it's bullshirt and laziness. As busy as I've seen newsrooms, there is always 10 seconds to look at the headlines.

Especially before you send pages. At least get that right. Nothing worse than a hed bust.

 

[armageddon]

When it's in a headline, sorry, it's bullshirt and laziness. As busy as I've seen newsrooms, there is always 10 seconds to look at the headlines.

Sorry, but it doesn't HAVE to be the result of bullshirt/laziness. I'm not going to say it is OK because it's not. I assume the folks involved were embarrassed. Good for them.

But if they have that few people reading that many pages mistakes like that can happen. If you're tired it is possible to read through something like that and not see it, even if you stare at it.

I've had the misfortune of writing a bad blog headlines (or two) but I was lucky enough to catch it shortly after posting, when I saw it on the web rather than in the in-house blog format.

I always edit the body of the blog post and the head before posting but have been cases in which I was so exhausted I could barely see and just didn't catch it.

Was this a mistake that needs to be avoided? Absolutely. But all I'm saying is that such a mistake can be made by a dutiful but tired and overworked employee.

 

[BrianGriffin]

This discussion reminds me of crime stats. Certain conditions - poverty, for example - predict high crime. That, however, does not excuse the criminal. Two different, but related, things.

Same here. Cuts are a predictor of more mistakes. Doesn't excuse those responsible for an individual mistake, but if you're holding folks accountable, you have to include those who create the climates in which mistakes are more likely.

 

[MonsterLobster]

Do any of you care when your order is forked up at McDonald's? I don't. It just pisses me off. Couldn't care less whether someone didn't show up for their shift, whether it was someone new working, etc.

Like many, I can be high-minded about what we do. I think it's very important.

But the bottom line is that we put out a product for public consumption. We are McDonald's to our readers. They don't care about our problems. They never will.

I tell my people that all the time. No one wants to hear a bunch of excuses when something of that magnitude is screwed up -- and I say that as someone who accidentally included the same word in a story a few years ago. I was on an unexpected early deadline, my technology failed on-site and our desk didn't read it as they normally would as a result.

In-house, it was understood that it was a perfect storm of bullshirt, though ultimately, the responsibility for typing the word was mine.

But as far as the public is concerned, you just apologize and take your lumps.

The public understands that more than a bunch of excuses they don't care about ... whether the excuses carry weight behind closed doors or not.

I've always liked this analogy, but I also wonder when is the time to say, "This is how McDonald's makes its burgers now"?

And I don't mean you say that when the order's messed up, or in this case when the word shirt is in your headline. You say it when people call to complain that patty isn't as thick, that the lettuce and tomato aren't the same quality they used to be and that we now charge for extra condiments.

 

[armageddon]

Do any of you care when your order is forked up at McDonald's? I don't. It just pisses me off. Couldn't care less whether someone didn't show up for their shift, whether it was someone new working, etc.

Like many, I can be high-minded about what we do. I think it's very important.

But the bottom line is that we put out a product for public consumption. We are McDonald's to our readers. They don't care about our problems. They never will.

I tell my people that all the time. No one wants to hear a bunch of excuses when something of that magnitude is screwed up -- and I say that as someone who accidentally included the same word in a story a few years ago. I was on an unexpected early deadline, my technology failed on-site and our desk didn't read it as they normally would as a result.

In-house, it was understood that it was a perfect storm of bullshirt, though ultimately, the responsibility for typing the word was mine.

But as far as the public is concerned, you just apologize and take your lumps.

The public understands that more than a bunch of excuses they don't care about ... whether the excuses carry weight behind closed doors or not.

I've always liked this analogy, but I also wonder when is the time to say, "This is how McDonald's makes its burgers now"?

And I don't mean you say that when the order's messed up, or in this case when the word shirt is in your headline. You say it when people call to complain that patty isn't as thick, that the lettuce and tomato aren't the same quality they used to be and that we now charge for extra condiments.

This isn't totally on point but what the heck...

Personnel cuts over the last few years have forced us to stop covering certain beats.

The fans of one particular team remain pissed and let us know whenever they can in comments section on blogs and such. Several times I've engaged them and shared the grimy details in an attempt to explain to them the reasons behind the reduction in coverage to almost nothing.

They remain pissed that we don't cover their team but they've also appreciated our effort to explain why things changed. You're not going to win everyone over but I see nothing wrong with trying to explain the situation.

 

[MonsterLobster]

Do any of you care when your order is forked up at McDonald's? I don't. It just pisses me off. Couldn't care less whether someone didn't show up for their shift, whether it was someone new working, etc.

Like many, I can be high-minded about what we do. I think it's very important.

But the bottom line is that we put out a product for public consumption. We are McDonald's to our readers. They don't care about our problems. They never will.

I tell my people that all the time. No one wants to hear a bunch of excuses when something of that magnitude is screwed up -- and I say that as someone who accidentally included the same word in a story a few years ago. I was on an unexpected early deadline, my technology failed on-site and our desk didn't read it as they normally would as a result.

In-house, it was understood that it was a perfect storm of bullshirt, though ultimately, the responsibility for typing the word was mine.

But as far as the public is concerned, you just apologize and take your lumps.

The public understands that more than a bunch of excuses they don't care about ... whether the excuses carry weight behind closed doors or not.

I've always liked this analogy, but I also wonder when is the time to say, "This is how McDonald's makes its burgers now"?

And I don't mean you say that when the order's messed up, or in this case when the word shirt is in your headline. You say it when people call to complain that patty isn't as thick, that the lettuce and tomato aren't the same quality they used to be and that we now charge for extra condiments.

This isn't totally on point but what the heck...

Personnel cuts over the last few years have forced us to stop covering certain beats.

The fans of one particular team remain pissed and let us know whenever they can in comments section on blogs and such. Several times I've engaged them and shared the grimy details in an attempt to explain to them the reasons behind the reduction in coverage to almost nothing.

They remain pissed that we don't cover their team but they've also appreciated our effort to explain why things changed. You're not going to win everyone over but I see nothing wrong with trying to explain the situation.

I feel ya. Not long after I came to my current shop we lost a position, and the people who followed that beat just don't seem to understand that spreading the big stories from that beat around to a couple other people in some minimal way just will never make up the depth one person can get in a 40-plus-hour work week. I have experimented with various ways of saying that to the reasonably few people who have complained, but alas, they cannot or will not understand.