» sjhoward.co.uk

  • » Archive
  • » Academia
  • » Shop
  • » Book
  • » Twitter
  • » About Me
  • » RSS Feed
  • Newspaper misspells own name in masthead

    Newspaper misspells own name in masthead

    Filed on 24th July 2008.
    Filed on Thursday, 24th July 2008 under Miscellaneous.
    Valley News's front-page oopsie.

    Valley News's front-page oopsie.

    It seems that the New Hampshire-based Valley News managed to misspell its own title on its own masthead on Monday by appending a superfluous ‘s’. Quite impressive stuff and, rather extraordinarily, not spotted by anybody involved in the production process.

    No doubt if I owned a newspaper, stuff like that woud be happening all the time. But perhaps that’s not surprising given that I come from the home of the Southport Visiter, consistently misspelled for 164 years, and read theguardian – a paper not best known for its spellchecker, and whose spaceless nonsense masthead has fascinated me since its introduction.

    On a more serious note, with editors everywhere laying off subeditors, claiming that they are no longer relevant or necessary in the multimedia newsroom, could there be a more prominent, clear demonstration that the role is still vital?

    Without subs, accuracy suffers, whether it be grammatical or factual. And in the ever-more competitive world, where the internet means that CP Scott’s maxim that “Comment is free, but facts are sacred” has never been more true, what do newspapers have on their side, if not accuracy?






    Comment

    Share




    Your Comments and Responses

    Comment from Michael West

    That’s quite a specimen indeed.

    But while I appreciate that a lot of arguably literate people confuse a “masthead” with a “nameplate” (or “banner”, or “flag”), the problem is this: If you call the nameplate the “masthead”, then what the hell do you call the masthead?

    Please get back to me with an answer.

    11th August 2008 | Permalink

    » This comment was received at 12:06 on 11 August 08


    Comment from kadri azharuddin

    Cool . . . . !

    this is a new thing which i came across in a publication where language and spelling plays an important role.

    I think this is not a mistake hope this might be a PR strategy which you can say may be a negative PR strategy so that people must know about the product.

    Can you reply me that y they have done this or at what percent do you agree with my statement

    28th January 2009 | Permalink

    » This comment was received at 10:52 on 28 January 09


    Write a new comment or response

    Commenting allows you to respond to what the author and other commenters have been said. Comments often appear on this page instantly, though sometimes take a little longer - especially if you are new to the site.

    Enter your comment in the text area below. You may use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong> .

    Note: By submitting your comment, you confirm that it conforms to the site's Comment Policy.
    Gravatar: To show your face, sign up for Gravatar, and enter your email address above.





    Welcome to my blog!
    I've been writing here since May 2003, and waffle on about all sorts of stuff.
    See this page for more about me, or follow me on twitter. Enjoy browsing, commenting, and getting involved!


    Printed from http://sjhoward.co.uk/archive/2008/07/24/newspaper-misspells-own-name-in-masthead
    (c) sjhoward.co.uk - full conditions can be viewed at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/
    The content of this site is copyright protected by a Creative Commons License, with some rights reserved. All trademarks, images and logos remain the property of their respective owners. The accuracy of information on this site is in no way guaranteed. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author. No responsibility can be accepted for any loss or damage caused by reliance on the information provided by this site.