Finding last second mistakes will cost you at this paper

http://jimromenesko.com/2014/03/13/connecticut-paper-to-charge-reporters-15-for-errors-that-require-a-press-plate-change/

I typically look at our paper in a web browser after the plates have been made and about once a week find something that either I or another editor didn't originally catch. Sometimes big, sometimes minor but if I knew it was costing an editor or reporter money, anything short of "Dewey defeats Truman" I would just zip my lip

 

AS one the FB commenters pointed out, now their journalists will keep silent and save the $15. Brilliant move.

Seriously, how much brains or talent does it take to be a newspaper executive? Want to cut down on wasting plates? Just don't allow them unless absolutely necessary, like a headline typo or something like that.

 

I just looked it up: According to this, it's illegal to dock employees' pay for "cash shortages, loss of equipment, misconduct, the destruction of company property, and various other occurrences."

http://wagehourlaw.foxrothschild.com/2011/02/articles/exemptions/you-break-it-you-bought-it-is-not-the-best-policy-in-the-workplace-the-pitfalls-of-docking-employees-pay/

Sounds like this idiot is about to break the law.

 

If it's a minor mistake, then I say too damned bad, should have caught it earlier.

 

Great. You make a mistake, and you work for free as punishment. Glad to see you've joined the 18th Century.

 

I meant the mistake gets printed. No replating for typos in body type.

 

OK, that clears it up. Shit, at the risk of a fine, I wouldn't even replate if a headline was mispelled, or if a curse word gets into print.

 

I hope Some Fucker reappears in a photo cutline there one day.

 

I could see the copy desk turning it into sort of a drinking game. Editor A makes a typo in a headline. Editor B sees it. But rather than make the change, resulting in a $15 fine, Editor A has to buy Editor B beers instead.

 

If they put in mug shots in crime stories, they should insert one of the editor by mistake. Then claim that they thought about changing it, but didn't want to be fined.

Also, as Romensko pointed out, it's the same idiot that said that newspapers were failing if they marketed to single mothers.

 

"...a plate change required to fix mistakes for which there’s no good explanation may cost the responsible employee, whether editor or reporter, a payroll deduction for the cost of the plate."

I'm guessing he won't consider "because it's wrong" as a good explanation for going back and fixing mistakes.

Either way, I think I'd pay money to hear this dickhead try to adjudicate one of these cases.