**It Happens

Interesting reaction from Matt DeRienzo, in charge of JRC's Connecticut papers:

--Also, we haven’t downsized copy editors in Torrington, so it should not be characterized that we’ve put people out of work there. We’ve launched new products in the past few years, so it’s absolutely true there is a bigger workload for the copy editors we do have.--

Uh, Matt, isn't adding workload without adding people the equivalent of cutting?

 

Or, if enough people bitch to Kia, maybe they start taking a look at their quality control and, instead of blaming the poor schlubs working there, point the fingers at themselves and put a little more money into it to make sure a good product is put out.





Awww, who are we fooling? Executive bonuses need to be paid out.

 

Yeah, that'll happen ...

 

It would be interesting to do a study on alertness levels and the effects of stress on the copy editors at the design hub.

 

No excuses here as someone should have caught this error and inserted a comma between Park and the.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/may/23/time-cole-hamels-lets-only-his-pitching-do-talking/

 

I saw him shit for the cycle in Chattanooga.

 

Especially before you send pages. At least get that right. Nothing worse than a hed bust.

 

Sorry, but it doesn't HAVE to be the result of bullshit/laziness. I'm not going to say it is OK because it's not. I assume the folks involved were embarrassed. Good for them.

But if they have that few people reading that many pages mistakes like that can happen. If you're tired it is possible to read through something like that and not see it, even if you stare at it.

I've had the misfortune of writing a bad blog headlines (or two) but I was lucky enough to catch it shortly after posting, when I saw it on the web rather than in the in-house blog format.

I always edit the body of the blog post and the head before posting but have been cases in which I was so exhausted I could barely see and just didn't catch it.

Was this a mistake that needs to be avoided? Absolutely. But all I'm saying is that such a mistake can be made by a dutiful but tired and overworked employee.

 

This discussion reminds me of crime stats. Certain conditions - poverty, for example - predict high crime. That, however, does not excuse the criminal. Two different, but related, things.

Same here. Cuts are a predictor of more mistakes. Doesn't excuse those responsible for an individual mistake, but if you're holding folks accountable, you have to include those who create the climates in which mistakes are more likely.

 

I've always liked this analogy, but I also wonder when is the time to say, "This is how McDonald's makes its burgers now"?

And I don't mean you say that when the order's messed up, or in this case when the word shit is in your headline. You say it when people call to complain that patty isn't as thick, that the lettuce and tomato aren't the same quality they used to be and that we now charge for extra condiments.

 

This isn't totally on point but what the hell...

Personnel cuts over the last few years have forced us to stop covering certain beats.

The fans of one particular team remain pissed and let us know whenever they can in comments section on blogs and such. Several times I've engaged them and shared the grimy details in an attempt to explain to them the reasons behind the reduction in coverage to almost nothing.

They remain pissed that we don't cover their team but they've also appreciated our effort to explain why things changed. You're not going to win everyone over but I see nothing wrong with trying to explain the situation.

 

I feel ya. Not long after I came to my current shop we lost a position, and the people who followed that beat just don't seem to understand that spreading the big stories from that beat around to a couple other people in some minimal way just will never make up the depth one person can get in a 40-plus-hour work week. I have experimented with various ways of saying that to the reasonably few people who have complained, but alas, they cannot or will not understand.