Dilbert didn't die; he's just delayed
Welcome to BeaumontEnterprise.com’s newest blog offering, Inside The Enterprise: Editors’ Blog, where readers can get a glimpse into the potentially frightening minds of senior editors and maybe come to recognize that we really aren’t bad people.
True journalists, for those of you who might think that is a dirty word, are among the most thoughtful, concerned, introspective people you might encounter. We don’t always do the right thing, but we always think about it and talk about it – a lot – and we always try. When we fail, we try to own up to it, learn from it and move on.
That said, you should know we made a mistake today. At least one that we know about. Unfortunately, it’s not all that unusual. As Reader Representative at The Enterprise, I often get word about our mistakes, try to figure out how we made them, chase down the correct information and get correct information in the paper.
That might seem like five minutes’ work. Some days it is. Some days, it’s less. Some days it takes hours.
Today’s mistake is fairly blatant, though not devastating. We published the wrong Dilbert comic strip on the cover of our business section, page page 10B. When I opened the newspaper at home this morning, I thought it looked vaguely familiar. I checked the date and screamed.
Most observant people can spot the mistake quickly. Dilbert, like the rest of the comics in The Enterprise, comes from a provider called a syndicate. Syndicated material – created by someone outside our staff and distributed to many newspapers -- always carries a release date. In the case of columns such as “Dear Abby” and “Heloise,” the reader never sees that date. On comics, it is printed somewhere inside or alongside the comic. Today’s Dilbert plainly says 9-18-06 instead of 10-18-06. We republished the comic that appeared on Sept. 18.
It happened because it comes in a computer file and because we are human. We try not to make mistakes, but we accept that we do.
So, how are we going to fix this? My suggestion, accepted by the editor, Tim Kelly (as opposed to an editor, who could be one of several people), is to publish a correction in the usual place (page 3A or 4A) and to print the Dilbert that should have been in the paper someplace else (in this case on page 4B, which is the nearest available space to the business section, where Dilbert always runs.) Thursday’s page 8B, the Business section lead page, will feature the Dilbert that is supposed to be there.
My logic in making this suggestion is:
-- Dilbert is funny and everybody wants to see the strip they missed.
-- Customers paid to see a Dilbert comic strip they didn’t get to see.
-- We have no alternative means to show the missed strip to customers because we are contractually forbidden to post it on our Web site.
I’d love to know how many of you noticed our mistake and what you think of our resolution. Your comments can help keep us on the right track – or steer us off in another direction if you think we are wrong. Please, feel free. Talk to us.
True journalists, for those of you who might think that is a dirty word, are among the most thoughtful, concerned, introspective people you might encounter. We don’t always do the right thing, but we always think about it and talk about it – a lot – and we always try. When we fail, we try to own up to it, learn from it and move on.
That said, you should know we made a mistake today. At least one that we know about. Unfortunately, it’s not all that unusual. As Reader Representative at The Enterprise, I often get word about our mistakes, try to figure out how we made them, chase down the correct information and get correct information in the paper.
That might seem like five minutes’ work. Some days it is. Some days, it’s less. Some days it takes hours.
Today’s mistake is fairly blatant, though not devastating. We published the wrong Dilbert comic strip on the cover of our business section, page page 10B. When I opened the newspaper at home this morning, I thought it looked vaguely familiar. I checked the date and screamed.
Most observant people can spot the mistake quickly. Dilbert, like the rest of the comics in The Enterprise, comes from a provider called a syndicate. Syndicated material – created by someone outside our staff and distributed to many newspapers -- always carries a release date. In the case of columns such as “Dear Abby” and “Heloise,” the reader never sees that date. On comics, it is printed somewhere inside or alongside the comic. Today’s Dilbert plainly says 9-18-06 instead of 10-18-06. We republished the comic that appeared on Sept. 18.
It happened because it comes in a computer file and because we are human. We try not to make mistakes, but we accept that we do.
So, how are we going to fix this? My suggestion, accepted by the editor, Tim Kelly (as opposed to an editor, who could be one of several people), is to publish a correction in the usual place (page 3A or 4A) and to print the Dilbert that should have been in the paper someplace else (in this case on page 4B, which is the nearest available space to the business section, where Dilbert always runs.) Thursday’s page 8B, the Business section lead page, will feature the Dilbert that is supposed to be there.
My logic in making this suggestion is:
-- Dilbert is funny and everybody wants to see the strip they missed.
-- Customers paid to see a Dilbert comic strip they didn’t get to see.
-- We have no alternative means to show the missed strip to customers because we are contractually forbidden to post it on our Web site.
I’d love to know how many of you noticed our mistake and what you think of our resolution. Your comments can help keep us on the right track – or steer us off in another direction if you think we are wrong. Please, feel free. Talk to us.
1 Comments:
Is that really what they're worried about at the Enterpirse?
There has to be something more important to write about, huh?
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