Advertiser boo-boo

[LikaNui]

Re: Advertiser boo-boo

The Navy has bigger boats, the Coast Guard runs rescue missions in that stuff so they aren't bothered by it. As for the Army and the Air Force, they don't go there. So yup, just the marines.

Oooooh, inter-service rivalry!
Just like the media.

[LikaNui]

Re: Advertiser boo-boo

Advertiser Editor (and Vice-President) Mark Platte wrote a great piece in today’s Editorial section. You’d think he’d been reading this thread!
He listed a ton of errors, then wrote:
“There were other more minor errors over this five-day period but the group listed above is mortifying because they all went through a number of editors and should have been caught before arriving on your doorstep.”

And similar to things we wrote here, Platte wrote:
“Readers expect us to set a higher standard and when we make egregious errors, our credibility suffers. Why believe what the newspaper has to say about anything when it can't decipher Roman numerals or tell the real Gandhi from the actor who portrayed him? ”Our procedures here at The Advertiser are for an editor to talk with those who made the mistake and examine what happened.”
(…)
“Besides, Advertiser writers and editors take great pride in their work and feel horrible when they've written something that warrants a correction.”
(…)
“When the situation becomes dire, as it has these past few weeks, I will send out a note to the troops warning of the seriousness of the situation.”

He also caught one that I wrote about here earlier. He wrote:
“In the Saturday, Jan. 27 paper, we announced some management changes and how new editors were taking on different responsibilities designed to make The Advertiser better. The story said to turn to Page B5 but the story was continued on B2.
“When I turned the page and couldn't find the story, I could just hear readers wondering why we couldn't even get a story right that was touting our key personnel.
“Steve Petranik, who runs our copy desk, sent out a note with the heading "This will NOT happen again" and set in place a number of procedures for copy editors, designers and news editors to follow.”

And his last paragraph:
“After a lot of years in the business, I know that errors come in bunches. So while I'm disturbed and disappointed, I'm optimistic that we'll enter a mistake-free period. If not, we'll go back to the drawing board.”

That's just a small part of what he wrote.
Well done, Mr. Platte. Well done.

[pzarquon]

Re: Advertiser boo-boo

Good on them for owning up to a bad couple of weeks. But I'm wondering why no one has publicly made the connection between this apparent struggle to maintain quality product and the recently announced shift to the "24/7" news cycle. They excel at posting press releases within minutes, but the fundamental, core competencies of journalists possibly suffer in the mean time.

I mean, c'mon. Someone wrote up that a traffic tie up had been cleared this morning. They also post when a bank Assistant VP is promoted to a VP.

But here's another "Breaking News" item: "Halekulani chef receives French Legion of Honor award" Posted a little while ago, and seemingly noteworthy news. But of course, the Chef's award was apparently announced, oh, four months ago! Yet with all that time to follow up, no original reporting, no interview... the "Breaking News" item is drawn entirely from (big surprise) the press release.

ETA: Hmm. Pacific Business News also posted this news today. Again, all press release rewrite -- including the canned quote. Maybe the media tubes were just clogged...

[Media Guy]

Re: Advertiser boo-boo

Excuse me for being ticky tacky on minor mistakes, but you'd think the state of Hawaii's largest daily newspaper would have the correct date on the front page of its online paper. Today is Wednesday, Feburary 28, 2007 isn't it?

http://honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

[LikaNui]

Re: Advertiser boo-boo

They seem to have fixed it in the half-hour since your post!

[Media Guy]

Re: Advertiser boo-boo

They seem to have fixed it in the half-hour since your post!

Yep, looks like the got the correct date up finally!

[Leo Lakio]

Re: Advertiser boo-boo

Shhhhh!!! They're...watching...us!... ... ...

[LikaNui]

Re: Advertiser boo-boo

Shhhhh!!! They're...watching...us!... ... ...

Well, they should, apparently. After that nice editorial recently where they promised to improve, there was a pretty hefty list of corrections published today.

[LikaNui]

Re: Advertiser boo-boo

On the last page of yesterday's TGIF section, there's a list of upcoming concerts including one featuring "Vince Neil of Motley Crew".
Uh... Motley WHO?!?

[LikaNui]

Re: Advertiser boo-boo

I certainly don't take motorcycle accidents lightly, but still... had to chuckle at this Breaking News item in the Advertiser, which begins with this sentence:

"A 38-year-old man riding a motorcyclist was transported to The Queen's Medical Center (...) "

Well, yeah, anybody who jumps on "a motorcyclist" and tries to ride him (or her) will certainly end up in a hospital!!!

[Leo Lakio]

Re: Advertiser boo-boo

Just for a flip to the other side...and since there's no S-B boo-boo thread...

I'm still wondering when the S-B plans to post anything on the Hoku nominations on their website. It's just after 11 am HST as I type, and it's been up on the Adv. site for several hours already.

[buzz1941]

Re: Advertiser boo-boo

I think they're waiting for the print edition first.

[mediababy67]

Re: Advertiser boo-boo

I think they're waiting for the print edition first.

A story is in today's Advertiser print edition already.

[Leo Lakio]

Re: Advertiser boo-boo

I think they're waiting for the print edition first.

Meaning they don't consider it important enough news, and are comfortable letting the Advertiser have a huge jump over them? If I were an S-B subscriber, I'd worry about a decision like that.

I'm second-guessing here, I realize that. However, I have long preferred the S-B's website over the Advertiser's; I now have reason to question the wisdom of that choice.

[cezanne]

Re: Advertiser boo-boo

Reading the Addie this morning about the shooting in Kaneohe. You know where it says CONTINUED A2, SEE MURDER or something like that... I go there and the mid-sentence continuation doesn't continue. There were two continuing articles, one of them was okay though.