Kiss today goodbye ...

My shop announced this week that "today" is no longer to be used in copy except in direct quotes. Instead, we are to use the appropriate day of the week.

The move makes sense from the standpoint that most items are posted online the day before they appear in print, but it's going to take some getting used to when writing advances. Kickoff is no longer at 2 p.m. today. Kickoff is now 2 p.m. Saturday.

 

Good. Everyone should do this. My shop never will.

 

Makes sense in the Web age. I can remember a FB friend of mine getting all up in arms because she read a story that had gone viral about Six Flags in Texas having a day for Muslims on what was supposed to be the anniversary of 9/11. Unfortunately, the story just said "Sunday" and no one had bothered to notice that the date stamp was Sept. 3, meaning that the event was Sept. 4.

Where I work, which is pretty much Web-only, we simply don't use any phrases that require knowing what the date referenced is -- next week, last year, etc. At least we're not supposed to.

 

It's so hard to say goodbye to Yesterday.

 

But who's going to be the catcher?

 

Nicely played.

 

Why not have different styles for online and print? You can do things differently online than print. Unfortunately, my shop doesn't realize that.

 

At most places I've been, just the opposite was true. We were encouraged to change the day of the week to "today", although when editing fast, that often didn't get done.

 

I didn't even have to click the link to laugh at that one. Great pull.

 

The first paper I worked at did this and I really liked it.

 

Same policy at our shop. As both a reader and a writer, I hate it. Every story should have a time and a date stamp. As a reader, my habit is to look at the time and date stamp, and read the story from that perspective. I'm probably in the minority, but whatever.