Technology will solve all our problems

JasonC · **Posted:** Wed Dec 11, 2002 5:50 pm

My newspaper will take "community" news submissions from folks and print them. Many times it's about someone's kid getting accepted to college, or the monthly VFW meeting. But here's something from a press release from the local university (a business college mainly). Better, a quote from the new chair of the math and science department:-------
â€œI hope to develop and facilitate the teaching of mathematics using technology that leads students to make good and ethical business decisions.â€
--------Apparently, the boys at Enron, Adelphia, Global Crossing and WorldCom didn't have access to method of teaching.

Finn DeSiecle · **Posted:** Thu Dec 12, 2002 5:00 am

Well, you have to expect that sort of quote from a talking chair.To see really bad writing, look at a paper (mine included, dammit) where obits have become paid ad copy. You can edit the things for errors, but since the funeral homes pay by the line (first 15 lines are free -- we're not total bastards), you have to leave in the stuff like "she was a renowned flower arranger who was beloved by her six grandchildren."

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Thu Dec 12, 2002 6:24 am

Paid obits are advertisements and you should not be handling them at all. Tell your boss I said so.

Finn DeSiecle · **Posted:** Fri Dec 13, 2002 3:45 am

Everybody who edits them agrees with you and has said so to both me and my boss. And we agree with them. Unfortunately, the agreement seems to stop there. I don't know if the exec. editor (my boss's boss) has even brought it up with Advertising.

rumymommy · **Joined:** Tue Aug 06, 2002 12:01 am **Posts:** 138

Ours are paid, but we do some modest editing. Oftentimes, the obit clerk transcribing the "ad" from a messy fax will screw something up. We've had to make sex changes and whole name changes, among many other things, simply because the obit clerk wasn't backchecking. A good reason for fixing paid obits is to make sure your paper didn't turn a grieving family's dead mother into a dead father.[ December 14, 2002: Message edited by: 4Jfan ]

Wayne Countryman · **Posted:** Sat Dec 14, 2002 10:22 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by 4Jfan:
Ours are paid, but we do some modest editing. Oftentimes, the obit clerk transcribing the "ad" from a messy fax will screw something up. We've had to make sex changes and whole name changes, among many other things, simply because the obit clerk wasn't backchecking. A good reason for fixing paid obits is to make sure your paper didn't turn a grieving family's dead mother into a dead father.[ December 14, 2002: Message edited by: 4Jfan ]<hr></blockquote>no one wants to see errors in obits (my grandfather's name was misspelled in his a few years ago), but i wonder how many copy desks have the time to edit them?if they're ads, then the paper has an obligation to get them right without the news department doing the work.yeah, i'm a dreamer.

rumymommy · **Joined:** Tue Aug 06, 2002 12:01 am **Posts:** 138

With the ad department they send proofs to the clients before the ad runs. If we were to send proofs to the funeral homes to OK that would be fine, but if we aren't going to do that, unfortunately it comes back to the copy desk. I don't agree with it, but I see why it's done.

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Technology will solve all our problems

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