The image is hard to see here, of course, because this is a photo of a page from an early press run. (Click on the image for a bigger, somewhat more-readable view.)
The page was spotted early in the run, and many copies were destroyed before they were distributed. Still, it caused a great deal of consternation in the newsroom, and prompted this memo from Editor Carolyn Washburn.
"We stopped the presses to change the photo and threw out thousands of papers still sitting at our dock," she wrote. "Unfortunately a few thousand papers had already gone out to carriers. It was caught on the press and replated, but it still went out to several thousand homes."
The F*¢& is pretty small but still should have been caught by somebody in the chain, starting with the photographer who turned it in.
ReplyDeleteAny more information on how it ended up in the paper? It's kind of surprising that in lived their photo archive for 5 months and nobody saw it.
At the Gannett paper I work at, someone would have seen it and the "F*¢&" would have become the talk of the newsroom until the photo editor deleted it, which I think would have been about 30 seconds after the F*¢& was discovered.
Just another example of too few people doing too many jobs for which they feel no ownership. The people who post things like this -- people like me -- suffer from old-journalism expectations. This is the New Journalism, and as they're fond of saying at The Greenville News, where I was laid off, "It's a brave new day." Get used to seeing f**k and other gross errors in dailies. Or quit reading them.
ReplyDeletePapers have had "correction" columns for 400 years. Mistakes happen. It's not a recent issue
DeleteYou're so right, 2:26. The "Exquirer Exclusive" at the top of today's Cincinnati Enquirer is yet another example.
ReplyDeleteCheers to the press crew for catching this before it created yet another unneeded embarrassment for this newspaper, a particularly noteworthy save since Buchanan will be sacking them all later this year.
ReplyDeleteOne hopes she at least acknowledged those efforts either view a note shared amongst their peers. A few tickets to a Reds game to the individual/s that caught it would be a nice gesture too.
Did that run when it was shot in November?
ReplyDeleteRegardless, as big as it ran I simply can't believe no one saw the word fuck. You always need to look at the words on signs at rallies before the pic is published!
That's just like running online court records of people you're writing a sob story about, send money for paralyzed dad type stories. Helps keep egg off face.
I do hope someone got fired. That's unconscionable.
ReplyDelete3:20 The day MB rewards anyone but her chosen few will be the first. Her question is why didn't they catch it sooner. She's heartless when it come to things like this. There is no right way only her way.
ReplyDeleteI just went downstairs to check today's paper and sure enough there it was: "EXQUIRER EXCLUSIVE." At the top of Page 1 and in red ink.
ReplyDeleteOMG, 3:16, I just looked at that front at newseum.com. I cannot believe that got through! Isn't that a big dog paper? How many editors look at the fronts anymore before they're sent off? Can't even spell the name of the hometown paper correctly?
ReplyDeleteI don't know about other newspapers so much, but at my site, most of the newsroom workers work a day shift, which has always been curious to me. The actual grunt work of production is at night. So why would you have an overload of editors/online work a frickin' day shift? The more eyeballs on a page the less likely this would happen.
ReplyDeleteHere's a link to the Newseum's Cincinnati Enquirer front page with the misspelling referenced by 6:04.
ReplyDeleteThe link will change to a different Enquirer front page after today, however.
Exquirer is funny because that's the name of the private FB group for former employees.
ReplyDeleteWho gives a flying f#ck? As if kids don't hear this word on cable TV. S#it, most kids come out the womb with this as part of their vocabulary. Get bent.
ReplyDeleteI'm more offended by the message of the entire photo than I am of that one sign, which is probably the only irrefutable message amongst all of them.
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ReplyDeleteKinda lame news photo. Photographer could have gotten a better picture without the profanity. That's just lazy.
ReplyDeleteThanks 2:26 for posting the defining comment on this thread.
ReplyDeleteCarolyn will keep laying off copy editors ... And then wonder why things like this still slip through. She has never understood the importance of copy editors in a newsroom.
ReplyDeleteThe only upside to this is that it hopefully will snuff out any tiny chance of her becoming USA Today's next editor.
If I was running the press and seen it, i would let it go, who am I to correct the great copy editor. Above my pay grade crocth..let it go..sell it
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of the Enquirer's front page in-depth investgiation, that is a warmed over piece that had been reported by Eileen Kelley year in and year out when she covered crime for the Enquirer before being dumped in the June layoffs last year. Rather than calling the story in-depth, they should call it warmed over. Carolyn, here's a tip, get to know what your newspaper has already covered and covered better!
ReplyDeleteMany off-topic posts in this thread. Most of them make no sense and add nothing to the discussion.
ReplyDeleteStart deleting those, Jim.
12:16 My comment policy says: "Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects."
ReplyDeleteSo far, no problems here.
CW wrote a column today about how excited readers are over the Enquirer's new 10x14 newspaper format planned for the fall. According to her, 800 customers reviewed it and all said they "LOVED it" - her quote - because it "fit their lifestyle." Right.
ReplyDeleteThe measly five comments on the article are all negative, but hey, what do they know? Only a few grammatical errors in the piece, too - and nothing misspelled in the headline!
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20120422/NEWS/304220039/Editor-shares-Enquirer-updates
5:50 don't blame the reporter. Blame the editor who insists that his reporters ONLY work on A-Caliber pieces and he only recognizes certain topics as worthy. And he has no idea what goes on beyond his little fifedom.
ReplyDeleteWell, in today's Enquirer, Carolyn's column also touted the new state columnist and the new state page. So, I went to the page and started reading the column.
ReplyDeleteIn it, readers are invited to invite the columnist to meetings, etc. He mentions that his e-mail address is at the top of the column. Hmm. I look. No e-mail address. Look again. Yep, no e-mail address.
Generally, e-mail addresses are part of the byline but this was a column, so it had a column logo - not a standard byline. Guess someone - the line editor, a copy editor, whoever - forgot to make sure it was there. Since this is a design issue, the writer would have NO control over it.
How frustrating for both readers and the new columnist. Small? Yes. But still an embarrassment.
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ReplyDeleteIf you're at a hub, which we're just migrating to, there's so much communication to wade through to get things done it's mind-boggling. What once was the job of a copy editor paginating a page all by her/himself, now it takes two people in two different states, to get one fricking page done. And it's a damning task. I bet a lot more than emails in the byline are going to be missing in this newest consolidation.
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ReplyDeleteIn the rush to ditch salaries and experience, quality control, never Gannett's strong point, suffers even more. I can't GE
ReplyDeleteYou how much backtracking and second guessing there is of the junior achievers running USA Today's website operations? The inexperienced staffers know little beyond technical skills. News judgement? No. Journalism experience? Not really. Fire in the belly? Like a dead Siberian Yak. Do they try to learn anything from anyone except their own insular little group? What do you think?
These are these youngsters without a clue are the people the powers that be have entrusted the future of our company.
That website is such a pathetic collection of poorly written articles and useless fluff pieces positioned as news, and delivered on one of the worst platforms on the Internet littered with constant advertisements, pop-ups, and other intrusions, that it's barely even readable much less usable.
ReplyDeleteIt must have been awfully embarrassing for Carolyn Washburn to have to respond to all the comments pointing out all the mistakes they make. I know I would be embarrassed if I were the editor and had a product of that poor quality being put out on a regular basis on my watch.
Its a little bit ironic....GCI is accused of soft journalism and too much fluff.
ReplyDeleteI think it would have shown more journalistic integrity (and saved the shareholders some money), if they'd just let it ride...and published an apology the next day. Its not like one of the writers inserted the word in an article. It was a picture of a live event. Things happen. Life happens.
But of course, GCI handled it with 10 thumbs.
Kudos!