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C.Y.A.

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Gravy Boat, Mar 29, 2009.

  1. Gravy Boat

    Gravy Boat Member

    I heard this on NPR Friday and laughed out loud. Give it a listen if you have a chance.

    http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102137273&ft=1&f=4516989

    The double truck, or two facing pages in the newspaper, featured a large map of Florida and the surrounding islands. Some of Pierce's colleagues pointed out that there were about eight instances on the map where the names of the islands were incorrect — but 500,000 copies of the paper had already been printed.

    "They all were throwing up their hands, and then I came up with probably my greatest achievement as a managing editor," Pierce says. "I sat down and wrote a story and I said, 'We, today, have a hurricane section, and we are going to give a prize of $100 to [the person] who can find the most mistakes.' And the son of a bitch found six more mistakes than we thought we had."
     
  2. CM Punk

    CM Punk Guest

    So hire the guy for $100 a week to be a proofreader. You could cut a position on the desk and save some money.
     
  3. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    Maybe if newspapers gave out free subscriptions to anyone who spots a mistake they could boost circulation.
     
  4. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    Talk about taking ownership of your local paper.
     
  5. FuturaBold

    FuturaBold Member

    I just want to see that bird on roller skates dunking a basketball...
     
  6. mustangj17

    mustangj17 Active Member

    Full of fail.
     
  7. Mark2010

    Mark2010 Active Member

    Damnit, don't give anyone any ideas.

    Years ago, I worked in a certain place where one reader would often call/email the editor to point out mistakes. After a few weeks of this, the editor responded "so, what are you doing in the afternoons these days?" (The guy was a retired postal worker.) YOU GUESSED IT!!! The following week, we had a new employee.

    Pity the poor editor (yours truly) who was once assigned to put out the biggest two sections (A section and local, something like 14 pages total) of the Sunday paper with just himself, the ex-postal worker and a college intern working that shift. Only one of us had any design/pagination experience at all. Somehow it got done without any libel issues and we actually got the paper printed before sunrise.
     
  8. Football_Bat

    Football_Bat Well-Known Member

    That's a funny story. Tell it again!
     
  9. Big Buckin' agate_monkey

    Big Buckin' agate_monkey Active Member

    Can we edit the product please?
     
  10. Gravy Boat

    Gravy Boat Member

    Um, ok.

    The double truck, or two facing pages in the newspaper, featured a large map of Florida and the surrounding islands. Some of Pierce's colleagues pointed out that there were about eight instances on the map where the names of the islands were incorrect — but 500,000 copies of the paper had already been printed.

    "They all were throwing up their hands, and then I came up with probably my greatest achievement as a managing editor," Pierce says. "I sat down and wrote a story and I said, 'We, today, have a hurricane section, and we are going to give a prize of $100 to [the person] who can find the most mistakes.' And the son of a bitch found six more mistakes than we thought we had."
     
  11. pseudo

    pseudo Well-Known Member

    If I thought that would work at the daily up the road, I'd be all over that idea.
     
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