$$$ > product

The way this came about, there was no way it was going to be avoided.

Usually, I am the one who handles this particular section. I arrange all the headshots of the kids we need, lay the whole thing out, edit it, proof it, send it. All the other guys do is write the stories.

But for the past three weeks, I've been tasked with single-handily doing our company's two biggest and most important special sections because I'm apparently the only editor who gives a damn about putting in any effort (Rhody will tell you as much).

To make a long story short, this is my baby and I was unable to take care of it this time. I'll take the blame for this one.

But you can bet your f**king ass come Monday morning there are going to be a lot of people with bite marks on their ass for this.

 

My problem was, it was a mistake editorial wouldn't have discovered. Basically, we have five front-page cutouts where there are now head shots. I would think someone on the production side or the guys at the press room would have noticed a photo not fitting the cutout space and said something.
Yes, editorial didn't properly link the photo - in most places that's productions things, but we're a tiny shop - but it's not something that shows up if we printed pages to proof them (note - our company doesn't want us printing pages to proof because, and I'm not joking, it wastes paper).

 

I send our entire B section to the printing plant each issue. I export the pages as PDFs and check each one at that point before releasing them. If something comes out wrong, it's my fault for releasing a bad PDF. Did I misread the thread, or does no one in sports have to sign off on sports pages as a final step before they're printed? The reason we have that step is to prevent situations like this.

 

No one signs off on them. The pages were put together by the new guy. Monday, I put the finishing touches on - lining stuff up, final editing changes and adding a few final headshots. Got it done 30 minutes ahead of schedule. Go to our production manager - who turns all the quark docs into PDFs, checks the photos, etc. - and say we're good to go, but tell him I'll be there for the next hour before I leave for a game in case something goes wrong. Twenty minutes later I check it, everything is sent and they said it was all good.
Then all hell broke loose Tuesday.

 

Before one of the Olympics, we did a special section. The graphic designer did a TV grid with starting times for all of the event. Truthfully, we were surprised the person even remembered to convert to Pacific time, but he did. However, he missed the fact that the local NBC affiliate was going to run a half-hour preview show each day. Therefore, all the actually starting times were a half-hour off.
Management trashed the whole run and printed it again.
I seriously doubt they would do the same thing if it happened now.

 

The thing I love the most about this whole section is that the only thing the company has to pay for for this section is printing. There's no overhead with salaries (We find a way to find the work in our 40-hour work week), there's no freelance payments going out, the whole thing is easy money for them because the eight strip ads sell themselves and we do this not because we have to but because we want to.

And yet, the one time we ask for something, it gets rejected. The one time. In three years. The one time in nine of these. The one time in at least (By my math) $21,000 of pure profit.

Gotta love businesses.

 

Rhody and Schiez, I feel your pain. And that bit about not printing proofs because it wastes paper is asinine even for the newspaper business. The proof sheets can be recycled, and the money (and reputation) saved by catching mistakes is far greater than the cost a few reams of paper.

Just wondering ... was this the infamous on-screen window that said "update links" when your production shop made the PDF, and they didn't bother to see that all the photos changed and didn't fit?

We've had that problem too, especially with RGB photos not being updated to CMYK, so they come out black and white on a color page. The problem isn't a problem if photos are processed in a timely fashion ... but of course, costs have been cut and the color/quality of photos isn't reflected in the bottom line.

You are both right to be upset ... if an ad had a bad photo or bad font, I guarantee they would have ate the cost of reprinting the section.

 

You guys have crucial steps missing from your process. I hope someone there recognizes that. At minimum, if it's a special section I care enough about to come on here and post about, I'm going to insist on being the last person to look at the pages before they are printed, and the first to see them early enough in the run to spot mistakes. If the first step is in place, though, you cut way down on the need for the second.

Not to mention making sure the staff knows you can't change file names like that.

 

The lesson to be learned is to have a quality-control process in place instead of an ad-hoc system. Two people in editorial should sign off on pages, especially for special sections. If you don't print proofs, you should export the PDFs yourself and proof there.

Without a process in place, you get "Pubic school" in a headline.

 

A couple of things:

1) I'd suggest that next year, someone from the sports desk check every PDF before it is sent on by the production staff. Again, you can't trust them to know what you intended to do. Sure, it could look blatantly wrong to you, but production people could shrug if off as eccentric design. If the PDFs come out on a network drive, someone should check them as they are made. If not, ask them to be e-mailed to you before they are plated, or should stand over the production managers shoulder and check them all as they are made.

2) Shiez, you say the "only" cost is the printing, but that's not a minor cost. They have to pay for the paper, the ink, the plates, the electricity to run the presses, etc., and then on top of that they'd likely have to pay for OT for pressmen unless they can squeeze it into the production schedule somewhere else, which can push back the rest of the production schedule.

Bottom line here is it would be nice if this could be reprinted, but it shouldn't be expected. The fault for the mistakes falls mainly on the sports staff. If anyone should have "bite mark on their ass for this" it should be the sports desk. May seem heartless to say, but it's true.