1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Prime example why even blogs must be closely edited

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Writers Block, Jun 10, 2011.

  1. Freelance Hack

    Freelance Hack Active Member

    I attended a luncheon last year in which the online editor of a major newspaper freely admitted that they did not proof most of what was posted on the Web.

    They're in the content development business. To them, the only thing that has to be right is the information being reported.

    Made me cringe when I heard it that day. Still makes me cringe to this day. To me, getting it right means writing it right, too.
     
  2. Writers Block

    Writers Block New Member

    Freelance Hack, I have heard that, as well. Problem is it kills your credibility with your readers. They are also looking for mistakes and when you give them that type of ammo they will lose respect for you quickly. Dodd was breaking some good information. There should have been an editor backing him up. No excuse.
     
  3. crusoes

    crusoes Active Member

    Are you kidding? Most readers can hardly spell their name. They don't remotely care as much.
     
  4. SF_Express

    SF_Express Active Member

    OK, I'll wade right in since most people know where I work anyway.

    The whole nature of blogs is immediacy and not bottling them up in a copy editing system. We don't WANT blogs going through a copy editing system. We had that for a while several years ago, and it was a nightmare -- and we have dozens more blog posts a day now than we had then. So blogs are going to continue to be posted unedited, and I believe this is right -- and if you're not wondering who I am, you know my copy desk background.

    What has changed recently is the addition of a system where blog posts are going to be more routinely back read by editors, and fixed as needed.

    As to whether typos "kill credibility with readers," I used to feel that way, but web readers in this demographic? I'm not so sure anymore.

    That doesn't mean we shouldn't try to make things as clean as possible, but bottom line: Blog posts will continue to go up unedited, albeit with more scrutiny after the fact. Anything else would be insane in this climate.
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page