[Page One obituary, top right, had wrong photo]
The death last week of a popular former Wisconsin police officer at a relatively young age offers a cautionary tale about newspaper publishing in a time of new technologies, and ever diminishing newsroom resources.
Al Ostrowski (left), a former Everest Metro Police Department patrolman known by thousands as "Officer Al," died Friday in Wausau. He was only 42 years old. Gannett's Wausau Daily Herald published his obituary yesterday, highlighting his work with area children in school safety campaigns."Nearly 2,000 of those children, their parents and Ostrowski's friends had joined a Facebook group called 'R.I.P. Officer Al Ostrowski' within 24 hours of his death,'' the paper said in its Page One account. (There are now two Facebook pages: here, and here, with what appear to be hundreds of postings.)
The Herald didn't give Ostrowski's cause of death, however, fueling whispers among readers and the broader community. The story did not, for example, say Ostrowski died after a short illness, or in a traffic accident. Sure enough, soon after the obit's publication online, technology whipped up rumors via comments on the story.
Reader: 'More to this story'
"Unfortunately,'' reader Wausau411 wrote in one of 25 comments, "when there is an article on the front page of the newspaper, it is now public information and the public does have the right to discuss it, however they want. . . . The truth is, there is more to this story and the way he passed and what lead up to his death."
Ihavetocomment said: "Talk to your children. Unfortunately they are getting details from Facebook that might need support from a parent."
There was Lani84, who wrote: "For those of you who continually and maliciously hurt him (and you know who you are), may you beg for forgiveness for all of eternity."
But there was another mystery about the Herald's account.
Wrong photo published
Readers quickly noticed that the picture accompanying Ostrowski's obituary in the print paper was, in fact, a photo of another man.
Herald Managing Editor Mark Treinen soon swooped into the online discussion, posting a note to readers: "We did place a photo of the wrong person with this story in the printed edition today, and initially online. Mr. Ostrowski was in the photo when it was taken in 2005, but it was cropped by a page designer last night to focus on the wrong person."
The note continued: "I am investigating to determine how that occurred, and will take steps to ensure something like it cannot happen again. But in the meantime, we apologize to readers and to the friends and family of Mr. Ostrowski for our error. It is inexcusable, as another commenter stated."
Is newsroom understaffed?
I immediately wondered whether the page was produced at one of the central Wisconsin production hubs, places where Gannett cranks out a rising number of pages far from the communities served by its papers. Or perhaps the error came on a late-night Friday shift, when an overworked copy desk struggled to hit deadlines with more work and fewer bodies.
In pledging to investigate the cause, and to "ensure something like it cannot happen again,'' let's hope top management takes a hard look at staffing -- and take steps to shore it up.
Are you seeing any changes in the frequency of published or broadcast errors at your site? Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.
We had a real bone-headed mistake at my paper last fall, after we'd laid just about everybody off, including a sharp-as-a-tack proofreader who would push back on things when editors let them slide.
ReplyDeleteWe published a letter to the editor that advocated humans going out and shooting each other during moose season. Of course, without the normal vetting process, and just one fellow in the editorial department, and a slammed copy desk nobody thought long and hard about the stupidity of the letter.
http://blog.nssf.org/2009/10/index.html
Jim says, "let's hope top management takes a hard look at staffing -- and take steps to shore it up." The solution won't be more staffing. It never is, not in these times. The solution will be a new rule, a new edict, more thorough cross-checking or proofing, one more thing for those copy editors to handle.
ReplyDeleteExcuses! Excuses!
ReplyDeleteThey are understaffed because of layoffs!!!
Cause and Effect!!!!!!
To answer this question: "I immediately wondered whether the page was produced at one of the central Wisconsin production hubs." Yes. A central copy desk in Wausau produces pages for smaller newspapers in Stevens Point, Marshfield and Wisconsin Rapids.
ReplyDeleteIt's important that everyone realize the real blame lies with the central copy desk. We all know a copy desk based at the newspaper's actual newsroom never would incorrectly crop a photo. That's never in the history of newspapering ever happened.
ReplyDeleteWe haven't had something of that magnitude in Louisiana (that I know of) but copy desk mistakes happen all the time. There seems to be no accountability, either.
ReplyDeleteSad thing is the top editors were probably more worried about prom night than the actual news going on right now. Just go look at all the Wisconsin newspapers websites right now. All you'll find on the home page is links to prom galleries. They'll get more clicks and make more money than anything else.
ReplyDelete4:56 is right. Nothing will really be done besides scolding and more responsibility in an already crammed shift. It's not the system's fault, it's the people in it according to management, who has never been through a copy editor's shift in her or her life.
Now, had a prom been missed because there were not enough photographers, than maybe something would be done.
Shouldn't the photo have been cropped by one of the chattel RTCs? Seems like the edict should be designers stop touching photos because Gannett has invested thousands of dollars in the RTC.
ReplyDeleteI say it's just plain lazy, they lift the picture from the facebook site, crop the picture with the wrong person, then blame it on someone else? Facebook had the news faster, they are the local "News" organization and dropped the ball. What do they do with majority of their day?
ReplyDeleteWausau is hopelessly understaffed because it serves as the central copy desk for three outlaying newspapers on top of the Wausau Daily Herald. As I wrote for the Stevens Point Journal, I received countless calls at all hours of the night from a clueless copy editor who had no idea of the background of a story, only to have the details screwed up at print.
ReplyDelete