Is it *that* hard to update?

In two local papers this morning, the Yankees-Indians game story was in with the final score, etc., and each paper also had the Red Sox follow that said the Sox didn't know yet whether they would play the Indians or the Yankees.

To me, if you are going to remake the front (or hold it), you should be able to update the Sox story on the inside.

But . . . in one of the two papers, the Indians-Yankees story was on the *top* of the front page, and the Red Sox story -- un-updated -- was on the *bottom.*

We're talking maybe a minute. Be sure to keep the same number of lines and re-flow the story.

Damn, that frustrates me.

[No, I was not in either newsroom, but I am a reader. I bought the papers. So I get to complain]

 

At most papers, different pages have different deadlines. The front is almost always the last page off the floor, so it's entirely possible that they would be able to get it on the front page, but not inside based on page deadlines.

Oh, and if one is going to complain on a journalists board, one should spell it correctly.

 

Arrgghhh. I had to hunt for the typo. Then I figured it out. Fixed.

Anyway, I know different pages have different deadlines, but does that preclude re-making the page later? (I am not sure if the paper has zoned editions, and I did not get it in the city it's published in).

I probably would not have commented except that the other paper had both stories on the front sports page.

 

If you're not in the city it's published in, you probably got an early edition. I'd guess that the inside pages were remade for a later edition. Least that's how it works at my paper.

 

If the winner is going to be published in the sports section after the front has to go to print, why not run a tease that says "<i>Find out who the Red Sox will face on E1</i>"?

 

Sportschick: I know that. That's why I mentioned where I got the paper.

Again, I have fewer problems with the paper that had it on Page 3. It's the one that had both stories on the same page that bugged me more.

Me, I would have edited the inside story initially to avoid the issue.

I find that way too many places don't edit AP copy. I look at it as raw copy.

 

If that's the same Red Sox story, it was a pain in the neck to fix. I think I ended up cutting three grafs right out of it and inserting a generic graf that Game 1 against the Indians was Friday. But that was all in our second edition. We didn't hold first for the game (which actually surprised me considering our Yankees fanbase here). But to respond to the original query -- yes, when at all possible, you should make your stories consistent.

 

Now, if you weren't gonna hold for the game, the story is OK.

Yes, the Sox story revolved around the next game.

I wonder if they wrote it through. I assume they did.

 

I checked and didn't see one -- believe me, I checked. But I don't think they did unless it moved really late.