Other than that snarky headline, I don’t have much else to say about this. I’d just feel like I’m piling on.
Here’s the entire page.
That’s the Ledger of Lakeland, Fla., circulation 41,309. It’s owned by the New York Times company.
And that’s the second time in less than a week we’ve seen an error in display type on page one. Just last Thursday, the Ledger confused “Medicare” and “Medicaid.”
Thanks to my anonymous source for the tip.
The front page image is from the Newseum. Of course.
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You know who else needs a copy editor?
Local TV news operations. Chicago’s WMAQ-TV in particular. And Harrisburg’s Fox43 TV news. And Local 15 News in Mobile, Ala. And WBAL-TV in Baltimore. And Fox2Now in St. Louis. And KTLA channel 5 in Los Angeles. And Charlotte’s WBTV. And other local TV news operations. And CBS local media. And the web operation for DC101 radio. And the Huffington Post. And CNN and CNN Money and CNN mobile and Fox News (and Fox News again) and ABC News and the BBC and German news channel N24. And Martha Stewart’s TV operation. And the Disney Channel. And creators of mobile apps. And Google News’ ‘bots. And Baseball jersey manufacturers. And Georgetown University. And Kansas State University. And the University of Iowa. And the New York Jets, the Minnesota Vikings, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Washington Nationals (boy, do they need a copy editor). And the National Hockey League. And ESPN (and ESPN again) and Fox Sports (and Fox Sports again). And college athletic department ticket offices. And the Virginia general assembly. And college alumni magazines. And pharmacies. And the makers of Sudafed. And Borders bookstore. And the U.S. Postal Service. And government agencies and political candidates. And Tea Party candidates. And the White House. And city and county Boards of Elections. Both the state of Pennsylvania and its department of transportation. And Pittsburgh skywriters. And road paving contractors. And the city of Norfolk, Va. And the Ohio Dept. of Transportation. And South African traffic cops. And gas stations. And billboard companies. And sign painters. And Home Depot and manufacturers of “hoodies.” And Dollar Tree. And T-shirt designers. And more T-shirt designers. And Old Navy. And rubber stamp designers. And glass etchers. And Starbucks. And restaurants, breakfast joints, Chinese restaurants and cake decorators. And more cake decorators. And drive-in movie theater managers. And romance novelists. And South Africa’s New Age and Sunday Independent newspapers. And Dublin’s Sunday Business Post. And the Echo of Gloucestershire, England. And the South China Morning Post. And the Washington Post (Hey! Another repeat offender!), the Post‘s Express tab (Hey! Yet another repeat offender!), the Washington Examiner, the New York Times (Wow! Yet another repeat offender!)(Hey! A third offense!), the New York Post, Wall Street Journal Europe, Newsday, USA Today, the Chicago Sun-Times (And yet another!), the Daily Herald of Arlington Heights, Ill., the Rochester, N.Y., Democrat & Chronicle, the Seattle Times, the weekly Manila Mail of San Francisco, the Miami Herald, the Portland Oregonian, the Durham, N.C., Herald-Sun, the Chapel Hill, N.C., News, the Missoula, Mont., Missoulian, the Times-Record of Denton, Md., the News-Herald of Willoughby, Ohio, the Amarillo (Texas) Globe News, the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Waynesboro News Virginian, the Virginian-Pilot, the Des Moines Register, the Green Bay Press-Gazette, Gannett’s N.Y. Central Media hub, the Greenville (S.C.) News, the Daily Herald of Provo, Utah, the Deseret News of Salt Lake City, the Salt Lake Tribune, the Carbondale, Ill., Southern Illinoisian, the Lakeland (Fla.) Ledger and the Canarsie Courier of New York City. And the Associated Press. And Mann’s Jeweler’s Accent magazine. And Investment News magazine. And Time magazine.
How do you get this wrong? If there’s one thing every newspaper should know, it’s what freaking day it is.
Haha. Well, I’m not sure if that’s a real question, but I’ll answer it anyway. First, you’re right. This kind of mistake should never make it in the paper. Reality: It happens all the time at many newspapers (even big ones), and it seems to happen regularly on big days. Why? Because people are working ahead, usually. Either through human error (simply forgetting what day the issue will print) or computer-aided error (content management systems that automatically places dates for instance) this same mistake happens over and over. All copy editors should handle end-of-night checks like assembly line work. Go through the newspaper, check all dates, then all headlines (do that one again for safe measure), then other display copy, then cutlines (because more mistakes happen here than anywhere else, then story leads. Going big to small helps ensure that if an error is made, it’s hopefully a small one.