Perfection and deadlines sometimes clash
A chaperone with a group visiting The Enterprise last week asked a question that reflects the interest and curiosity level of many of our readers: "How long does it take to produce the paper?"
The answer is, 24 hours, and then some.
We plan ahead, sometimes weeks ahead, for major projects and special sections such as this week's Progress.
Other news goes on our Web site within minutes and in our paper sometimes within hours.
But, The Enterprise is a daily newspaper, so we basically have 24 hours to produce it, and it takes all 1,440 of those minutes to pull it off.
Different portions of our operations have different, intermediate deadlines, but in the end it all boils down to many people working together doing different jobs for one common goal -- creating your newspaper.
As we create the newspaper, we unfortunately make errors. Some readers are understanding, even amused by our mistakes.
Others are quite critical, suggesting we fire our proofreaders or learn to use spellcheck. There are a couple of issues with those suggestions.
First, we don't employ any proofreaders. We used to, decades ago. When reporters still typed on typewriters (with carbon paper) and either a machine scanned that copy and input it for production, or a person retyped it before it went to press. Then we kept a couple of proofreaders pretty busy.
They were sharp-eyed, generally older, women, who would pay the newsroom a visit several times a day to check on facts or possible errors. But they are gone now.
Instead we have copy editors. We had those decades ago as well, but their jobs have changed substantially since that time. They not only read stories and write headlines, they design pages, create graphics and perform multiple other duties -- all on deadline.
And, yes, they all know how to use spell-check. The problem with that concept (besides the obvious one that spell-check doesn't catch homonyms and other hidden errors) is that running a spell-check program on an entire page is very time-consuming (see the 24-hour and on-deadline references above.)
The most efficient way for our copy editors to spellcheck a story and headline is to create another document in a more efficient computer program (that spell-checks, but doesn't work for building pages). But, again, it's time-consuming.
Sometimes it comes down to making your newspaper perfect (which we would love to do) or trying to get it to you on time (which is our most important goal). At those times, we end up sacrificing one goal for the other.
So, speaking of errors, the prizewinner for the week and the one that left most of the newsroom red-faced was the word definitely misspelled as "definately." We know better (especially now), but it slipped through. Unfortunately the article's writer caught a great deal of the flak for that mistake, which wasn't even hers.
That's another thing readers need to know about newspapers: The reporters don't write the headlines. The copy editors do.
Regardless of the origin of the errors, the Reader Representative is the one to call. Leave a message. Laughing is allowed. Ridicule is allowed. We do take these things seriously -- so you don't have to.
*
A few of you might have noticed another slight change to your comics page in Monday's and today's paper. We rearranged the single panel comics into a row across the bottom and moved a couple of the comic strips to another location.
The change wasn't drastic, but it did have a purpose. When we relocated the "Dinette Set" comic onto that page, the space was narrower than the previous location. That meant, not only was the type in the comic somewhat squeezed, but the people we love to laugh with (and at) were way too skinny. This week's change puts things back into their proper perspective. Though only a few readers had complained, we noticed it too and thought it needed to be fixed.
We hope you approve of our efforts.
*
A reader request for more coupons got the attention of our advertising department, which now is selling more coupons for our Wednesday "Journal" insert. Using those coupons will let our local advertisers know you approve, so enjoy the savings and thanks for speaking up.
The answer is, 24 hours, and then some.
We plan ahead, sometimes weeks ahead, for major projects and special sections such as this week's Progress.
Other news goes on our Web site within minutes and in our paper sometimes within hours.
But, The Enterprise is a daily newspaper, so we basically have 24 hours to produce it, and it takes all 1,440 of those minutes to pull it off.
Different portions of our operations have different, intermediate deadlines, but in the end it all boils down to many people working together doing different jobs for one common goal -- creating your newspaper.
As we create the newspaper, we unfortunately make errors. Some readers are understanding, even amused by our mistakes.
Others are quite critical, suggesting we fire our proofreaders or learn to use spellcheck. There are a couple of issues with those suggestions.
First, we don't employ any proofreaders. We used to, decades ago. When reporters still typed on typewriters (with carbon paper) and either a machine scanned that copy and input it for production, or a person retyped it before it went to press. Then we kept a couple of proofreaders pretty busy.
They were sharp-eyed, generally older, women, who would pay the newsroom a visit several times a day to check on facts or possible errors. But they are gone now.
Instead we have copy editors. We had those decades ago as well, but their jobs have changed substantially since that time. They not only read stories and write headlines, they design pages, create graphics and perform multiple other duties -- all on deadline.
And, yes, they all know how to use spell-check. The problem with that concept (besides the obvious one that spell-check doesn't catch homonyms and other hidden errors) is that running a spell-check program on an entire page is very time-consuming (see the 24-hour and on-deadline references above.)
The most efficient way for our copy editors to spellcheck a story and headline is to create another document in a more efficient computer program (that spell-checks, but doesn't work for building pages). But, again, it's time-consuming.
Sometimes it comes down to making your newspaper perfect (which we would love to do) or trying to get it to you on time (which is our most important goal). At those times, we end up sacrificing one goal for the other.
So, speaking of errors, the prizewinner for the week and the one that left most of the newsroom red-faced was the word definitely misspelled as "definately." We know better (especially now), but it slipped through. Unfortunately the article's writer caught a great deal of the flak for that mistake, which wasn't even hers.
That's another thing readers need to know about newspapers: The reporters don't write the headlines. The copy editors do.
Regardless of the origin of the errors, the Reader Representative is the one to call. Leave a message. Laughing is allowed. Ridicule is allowed. We do take these things seriously -- so you don't have to.
*
A few of you might have noticed another slight change to your comics page in Monday's and today's paper. We rearranged the single panel comics into a row across the bottom and moved a couple of the comic strips to another location.
The change wasn't drastic, but it did have a purpose. When we relocated the "Dinette Set" comic onto that page, the space was narrower than the previous location. That meant, not only was the type in the comic somewhat squeezed, but the people we love to laugh with (and at) were way too skinny. This week's change puts things back into their proper perspective. Though only a few readers had complained, we noticed it too and thought it needed to be fixed.
We hope you approve of our efforts.
*
A reader request for more coupons got the attention of our advertising department, which now is selling more coupons for our Wednesday "Journal" insert. Using those coupons will let our local advertisers know you approve, so enjoy the savings and thanks for speaking up.
posted by Sheila Friedeck at 3:08 PM
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