So, has anyone noticed?

One of the guys they hired at my former shop is notoriously bad when it comes to grammar and the like.

I've talked to my old boss about it through email, and he said the guy cannot be helped. The pieces of his i have read are just terrible.

If i had more design experience and had the desire to work for that paper again, i'd try and talk my former boss into hiring me in that position.

 

I think too many papers are still in denial about what they are. Trying to do "more with less" only leads to "more" mistakes and "less" quality journalism. Figure out what you can do well and do it.
It's like a wedding reception. Sure you might want a kick ass party for 300, but isn't it better to serve crab cakes and champagne for 50, than give the 300 Ritz crackers and apple juice?

 

I just saw it in a piece in a back edition ... think back just a couple of months. Lazy fools misspelled my hometown. Seriously.

Speaking of the local paper, it has been a joke for a while now. Just awful. The typos aren't overwhelming, but budgeting absolutely sucks and the design looks like the work of preschoolers with crayons. Come to think of it, those preschoolers might do a better job.

 

I only read the NY Times online, and only on my phone at that. But it seems like every time I read three or four of their stories, I find a mistake, either a typo or something more significant.

I used to have a professor who would offer $1 for every mistake you could find in the NYT. I wish I was back there now.

 

My local mid-sized metro seems to be holding it together OK.

Section-front centerpieces remain strong other than the usual problem of scraping the bottom of the barrel from time to time in the area of newsworthiness. Front pages are still looking good and the usual quota of inside content that doesn't really measure up but doesn't rate as an embarrassment either.

When H.S. sports resume in two weeks, though, their typo count will climb significantly. They rely too much on college kids writing roundups Sept. thru June.

 

Yes quality is down in the industry and will remain down as long as there are cutback and the people who remain are overloaded with added responsibilities. This is what the higher ups want. It's what they'll get. Nuff said.

 

Some errors are caught in the NYT FINAL. Some are not.

 

i have noticed.

i read my local paper (miami herald) and it's riddled with minor errors.

i think readers who aren't former journos, like me, accept it as the norm because everywhere you look in society there are typos and people using poor grammar (and refusing to capitalize)

 

Nothing sums up our industry right now quite like somebody carping on a message board about "bad grammer" in other papers.

 

The local paper I get at my house has more errors, but its Web site has twice that many.

Meanwhile, the staffers who still work there -- approximately 70 percent of the newsroom workforce 2 years ago -- are being trained in how to present themselves in hand-held video, as well as in how to shoot same.

At a time when papers are adding duties and responsibilities to this growing, insatiable, multimedia platform, they are whacking staff. It is the exact opposite of good common sense -- and passable journalism.

 

I really, really strive to turn in clean copy, but I had a typo in my second graf yesterday ... it went straight into the paper. Our desk is really ragged right now, for the reasons we all know too well.