Banner headline: "Let is snow, let is snow, let is snow"

I see how this happens, in terms of getting onto the page. I do not see how this gets into print. And if it does, I don't see how it gets out the door. Excuses aside, I think this is one of those where you have to "shoot a hostage" just to establish who's in charge.

 

Only one set of eyes looked at the page?

 

Agreed. Henry is right, someone has to be canned (or at the very least, demoted). Having every experienced person off on Dec. 26 (if that happened) isn't an excuse, either.

Ah, MediaNews.

 

No one gets fired for these kinds of mistakes anymore. Managers are too scared positions won't be filled.

 

Is it incompetence or fatigue? If only one person looks at the page, then the publisher and ME are just as incompetent for not knowing what's going on at the paper.

 

Headline looks like the old Bodoni typeface, long a newspaper standard and which lasted at the Miami Herald until the 90s.

Heck, even the Washington Post still uses a variation of Bodoni, I believe.

 

I have decided to also mock this mistake, thus ensuring that I will goof up something in the near future.

 

Obscure, but good.

 

This. I try not to take any pleasure from that sort of thing at all, despite my German bloodlines. It's a teachable moment, maybe.

 

Canned?!?! Are you serious? And the day after Christmas? Look, I'm no softy, but jesus, you're going to fire someone for a headline? No, you fire someone for fabricating sources. Not for a fucking typo in a headline. What you do is have a meeting and say, "How did this happen and how can we be absolutely sure it doesn't happen again?" Maybe it's the wakeup call the paper needed.

Holy fuck, I'm glad I don't work for some of you guys.

 

Years ago I worked for the Spartanburg Herald-Journal in S.C., and the biggest story around was that BMW was going to open its first U.S. plant in our area. One day, we had some giant, screaming headline about BMW on 1A -- only the headline actually said BWM.

The H-J was a New York Times regional paper at the time, and as I recall (anyone out there who remembers this can correct me if I'm wrong), there was also a big NYTRNG meeting going on nearby (in Asheville, N.C., perhaps?), and we had it set up to send several bundles of that paper to the meeting to show off for all the big shots.

I don't recall anyone getting fired for that one.

 

You're right, somebody should be fired. The highly-paid executives who can't come up with a plan to generate more revenue so the paper can be better staffed.