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Headline goes here

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by zufer, Jul 18, 2006.

  1. HejiraHenry

    HejiraHenry Well-Known Member

    Finally, the July 16 edition of the fine Sun Herald newspaper arrived in our office.

    Lo and behold, "Headline goes here" does not appear above the junior college recruiting story.

    Whaddya know?

    As it turns out, it was paired with another story on the cover under a common centerpiece headline.

    Both stories had subheads, of course.

    So it was indeed a Web site error, probably caused by the way the layout was uploaded to the site.

    Why it wasn't promptly corrected is a good question. As for my original question, it's answered.
     
  2. Tom Petty

    Tom Petty Guest

    hell, it's already been jacked.

    dye, why don't readers want purdy pages and why don't you want designers to do their jobs and pull someone into text, even if they don't know why they're being pulled in?

    are the only good layout folks 'brick layers?'
     
  3. Tom Petty

    Tom Petty Guest

    thanks for your 2 cents james jones.
     
  4. DyePack

    DyePack New Member

    Thomas:

    I actually want them to do their jobs properly. They aren't, and no one calls them on their bullshit.
     
  5. I hear ya, Dyepack. Boy, you'd hate our shop.

    Our copy editors work with writers to catch errors, improve grammar and make stories readable without changing emphasis and meaning.

    Our designers try to showcase a story, giving big stories their full effect and keeping secondary stories from being buried.

    Designers and copy editors work together to put out a great product, we don't fight petty little turf wars, and we get along.

    What the hell are we doing wrong?!
     
  6. DyePack

    DyePack New Member

    A-D H-O-M
    I-N-E-M

    A-D H-O-M
    I-N-E-M

    Keep on chanting
    to the rock n' roll

    Of Ad Hominem
    Ad Hominem

    Whenever posters
    can't think for themselves

    It's Ad Hominem
    Ad Hominem

    Ad Homin -eeeeeeeeemmem
    Ad Homin -eeeeeeeeemmem
     
  7. Tom Petty

    Tom Petty Guest

    dye - i'm interested to read your take on this. please pontificate.
     
  8. DyePack

    DyePack New Member

    My take, the short version, is that many of these positions are "copy editor/designer" positions, but too many people treat them simply as design positions.

    Then they compare their design masterpieces as if they are solely designers. I'm not impressed. If someone can spend the whole shift dicking around with layout and not editing copy or writing a decent headline, their page had better be a fucking masterpiece.

    Way too many mistakes either get into the paper or are caught at the last level because of this crap, too. It's a fucking delusional, inefficient way to run a newsroom, yet many MEs act as if they are destined to worship at this altar. I wouldn't be surprised if they have a designer urinate into a small specimen cup at their altar so they can drink it later.
     
  9. buckweaver

    buckweaver Active Member

    Re: Dye's response

    I wasn't asked to pee in a cup. ;D

    But I was hired as a "page designer," only two weeks after I got here, it turned into a "copy editor/page designer" position. Now it seems to be a "jack-of-all-trades-at-a-cubicle" position. Maybe some papers have designers who just design. But I doubt it.
     
  10. Tom Petty

    Tom Petty Guest

    wow, in retrospect, you make a helluva good point. at my last stop, i actually witnessed the whole 'drinking from the cup of the urine' effect. the guy i'm thinking about could lay the shit out of pages, but couldn't edit to save his ass. every saturday, i'd get in early and he'd always ask me to look over his copy and i'd proceed to make at least 10 red marks on each page he designed ... your last line of defense reference sent me back down sunday editor memory lane.

    just before i left, he was promoted and has been promoted at least once since then.

    but now i'm at a place that puts all emphasis on copy and not enough on design, which, i guess, has left me longing for a bit of pizazz.
     
  11. Montezuma's Revenge

    Montezuma's Revenge Active Member

    Thanks for checking in, James. :D
     
  12. VJ

    VJ Member

    They do. They're called 100k circulation and higher papers.
     
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