Westchester | This N.Y. industry *really* steps in it

A reader of The Journal News in Westchester, N.Y., says this hed bust appeared on Page A11 this morning over this story. It was caught at some point, but a lot of editions went out nonetheless, the reader says.

Got an example for my series about the downside of cutting copy editing jobs? 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.

Wausau | This hed looks like an editor's reminder

That's a screenshot of what I found in my in-box this morning when I checked the latest batch of Google News alerts for anything Gannett-related.

But I don't find this editor's note in place of a hed when I went to the Wausau Daily Herald's website. I think it originally went with this story.

Maybe it got caught after Google scraped the story from the Wisconsin paper's site?

USAT | Isn't it really the other way around?

A just-taken screenshot of USA Today's homepage captures a story headline that says, "Weather service warned about 'Biblical' rainfall."

Now, who exactly is warning the weather service?

Wilmington | Page One pic shows 'gang bang' sign

Screenshot from the Newseum shows offensive pink sign.

In a slip some Gannett Bloggers will blame on consolidating page design at central hubs, The News Journal of Wilmington, Del., published a Page One photo this morning about a gay marriage rally that included a participant carrying a sign reading, "I'm here for the gang bang."

The sign, in pink, appears in the background; click on the image, above, for a bigger, more readable view.

In the online version of the accompanying story, editors published a different photo by the same photographer.

The photo recalls a similar one that appeared on an inside page of The Cincinnati Enquirer in April 2012. That one, also taken at a gay-rights rally, showed a sign with the word "fuck" on it. The page was spotted early in the run, and many copies were destroyed before they were distributed.

I don't know whether the Wilmington paper caught the photo in time to prevent full distribution.

[Photo detail: Newseum; see all Gannett front pages today]

Westchester | Hasson's letter to readers on pulling gun data didn't cross all the 'i's or dot all the 't's

As closely read as it would be, you'd expect Publisher Janet Hasson's letter would be very carefully reviewed before it appeared in The Journal News. Here's a screenshot of how it looks right now, more than 24 hours after first appearing online:

What's missing? 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.

USAT | What'll the grammar police say about this?

Over at Jim Romenesko's blog, a debate's now underway about a (possibly) new contraction employed'n a USA Today hed this mornin'.

Cincy| We don't kneed no stinkin' copy editors!

One in an occasional series about the impact of cuts in copyediting across Gannett.

Omni Hotels & Resorts is one of the nation's better-known hotel brands. Indeed, there was once an Omni in Cincinnati.

But that's not how it was spelled in a Cincinnati Enquirer story yesterday about an incident in Pittsburgh, Pa., involving a Cincinnati Reds player. The misspelling created an unfortunate play on the word.

HEADLINE: Police investigate Chapman robbery

THE LEDE: Pittsburgh police confirmed Wednesday they are investigating the Tuesday evening robbery of a 26-year-old Hispanic woman who was tied up and robbed inside Reds pitcher Aroldis Chapman's room at the Onmi Penn hotel.

See this clipping of the print version.

Got an example for this series? 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.

Cincy| A painful case of copy-editing erosion

John McIntyre, the Baltimore Sun's newsroom content production manager, recently wrote on his blog about newspapers throwing copy editors over the side -- and the erosion of quality that inevitably follows.

"You may have imagined that I exaggerate," he said yesterday in a follow-up post about The Cincinnati Enquirer. "So let me show you a particularly painful case."

Hubs | How Montgomery got Pensacola's comics

In a column today, Executive Editor Wanda Lloyd explains how The Montgomery Advertiser's readers found themselves staring at a page full of unfamiliar comics on Monday:

It took me about an hour to backtrack and realize that our new process with designers in Nashville, Tenn., and copy editors in Montgomery somehow left a window for an error that led to a page of comics intended for another newspaper — the News-Journal in Pensacola — instead of our normal page.

USAT | We don't kneed no stinkin' copy editors!

First in an occasional series about the impact of cuts in copyediting across Gannett. 

This morning, USA Today is carrying a Detroit Free Press story online about student loan debt. Word for word, we see the following sidebar tacked to the bottom of the story:

(BREAKOUT MATERIAL)(AT)

Types of federal student loans(AT)

The two main types of federally subsidized loans available are:

Perkins loan:(AT)

A 5(PERCENT) loan for students with financial need. The loan is federally funded and supplemented by the university.

Available for up to $5,500 for each year of undergraduate study, or a total of $27,500.

Repayment begins six or nine months after the person leaves school, depending on promissory note provisions.

Subsidized(AT) Stafford loan:(AT)

A loan with an interest rate currently capped at 3.4(PERCENT), but that rate will double unless Congress acts by July 1 to freeze it.

Students can borrow up to $3,500 their first year, $4,500 their second year and $5,500 their third year and beyond -- up to a maximum of $31,000, of which only $23,000 can be subsidized by the federal government.

Interest does not accrue until graduation on subsidized Stafford loans. Borrowers must start repaying six months after graduation, or if they drop below half-time student status.

Since 2005, the loans are not dischargeable by filing for bankruptcy.

Got an example for this series? 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.

Cincy | Here's the now-famous 'f-ck' photograph

That's from The Cincinnati Enquirer page last Sunday that included a photo of a protester carrying a sign with the word "fuck" on it. (I've circled the sign.) A Gannett Blog reader gave me a copy today.

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."