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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Guide Weather Subscribe Contact Us January 24, 2005 Editor's Desk Tidings' staff cuts errors nearly in half Independent editors analyzed each issue of the Ashland Daily Tidings for the first four weeks of November. In all, the Tidings published 283 pages of news content (including sports, business, backpage and faith, but not including weather/comics or classifieds). The Mail Tribune news staff served as the editors for the review. The results were then organized into six categories of errors: o Typos - These are obvious errors of a typist, either an editor on the page or a writer error that eluded editing. This includes misspellings that are obviously an error, not a lack of knowledge. o AP - These are basic errors of style, as determined by the Associated Press stylebook. It is not scored as an error when local style has been pre-determined by the staff to take precedence over AP style. o Style - These are errors of design and layout style, as determined by the staff during its November 2003 redesign. o Facts - These are errors of fact. o Set up - These are production errors related to items that are produced in pre-press or another department outside of news. o Grammar - these are errors of English, including but not limited to, spelling, capitalization, verb agreement, tense agreement, commas and hyphens. The categorization of each error requires some subjective determination. Goals to Evaluate We conducted this error audit in November after our initial error audit in March 2004, which was used to establish the baseline for the Ashland Daily Tidings in its current format. The same methodologies were utilized in both audits, and the same page flow deadlines applied. Thus, the numbers are highly comparable as a means of evaluating progress. Following the March audit, several areas of improvement were targeted in order to show demonstrable improvement by the November audit. The purpose of any successful error audit is not to eliminate all errors, but to identity specific areas that improved systems or education can reduce the most errors. Below is a recap of the four goals for improvement we set in March: 1) Grammar - specifically, editing of submitted copy. Other areas of concern included poor punctuation. To address this goal, we planned some basic grammar instruction sessions by our best copy editors. The editors worked on this to some degree, but ultimately the instruction meetings were lost in the busy shuffle of work duties. 2) The Valley Page is the most error-filled page in the newspaper, in large part due to contributed copy. Errors were mostly due to typos and grammar. To address this goal, we established a new, earlier deadline for the page, and added specific editing duties in the afternoon. The results of performance on these were mixed. When done as planned, improvement was very noticeable. Consistently, breakdown of deadline procedure results in more errors in the final product. 3) Front Page - 111 errors on 24 front pages were deemed far too high for such a prominent part of the paper. To address this goal, new procedures for page checking were installed to create more editing and fewer errors. 4) Mondays and Wednesdays - The two days of the week when staff is reduced, either because of days off or the production of Revels, as expected, produced the higher number of errors in March. To address this goal, we added specific editing details to other staff members on these days. Photographer Denise Baratta played a far more active role on Mondays in editing over the last six months. Likewise, staff writers were challenged to contribute more in this area. Results Overall: Tremendous improvement took place between March and November. The overall number of errors dropped from 656 errors to 383 errors. For the course of four weeks, five different editors produced 283 pages, with a total of 383 errors, or 1.35 errors per page, a sharp reduction from the 2.33 errors per page in March. Grammar: Grammar remains the biggest issue of concern as revealed by this second audit. Just as in the March audit, grammar mistakes counted for more than half of all errors in the paper (56 percent). However, overall improvement was strong, with the number of grammar errors dropping from 372 to 216. Valley Page: The Valley page remains the more error-filled page in the paper. Again, the biggest culprit was poorly edited submitted copy for the Community Notes section. But, the staff improved in two specific areas: The number of errors dropped from 174 to 123. Typographical errors dropped from 18 percent to just 7 percent. Front Page: Because of improvement in other areas, the percentage of errors on the front page increased from 17 to 22 percent, but as in all other areas, the overall number of errors dropped, from 111 to 85. But because of the prominence of the front page, this remains an area in need of improvement. Mondays and Wednesdays: The November audit found no significant difference between Mondays and Wednesdays and any other day of the week. In fact, Saturdays became the day of the week with the most errors in all four weeks of the survey. Because Saturdays has more pages than most days, this is to be expected. However, it does suggest a degree of carelessness that was not shown in other days of the week. This is particularly important with the emphasis on our upcoming expanded Saturday morning section being released on Feb. 26. Other: It is worth noting significant improvement in two areas. First, the number of careless mistakes dropped significantly by the reduction of typos and the overall reduction of errors between March and November. The increased priority given to procedure and the implementation of that procedure has made a lasting impact on the quality of the newspaper. Continued improvement in the year to come is a reasonable expectation. Second, the opinion page, one of the most-error filled pages in the March audit, was dramatically reduced, dropping from 15 percent of the errors to just 8 percent. Staff procedures to proof this page in the afternoon seemed to have paid a large dividend. Future Goals Clearly we are on the right path. The procedures established in March are working, which makes continued reliance and enforcement of those procedures - coupled with proper training of new employees to implement those procedures - very important to the quality of our news product. Specific areas in need of improvement remain. These are: 1) Community Notes - Sloppy editing of community notes on the Valley Page is far and above the number one factor for errors in the newspaper, ACTION PLAN: We will hold a 30-minute training session during our staff retreat in February, during which we will go over the procedures and responsibility for editing this content. Renewed energy on proofing the Valley Page, BEFORE deadline, remains an area of specific need that each staff member will be asked to help improve. 2) Grammar - Basic grammar skills still need sharpening, from the editor down to each and every staff writer. ACTION PLAN: The action plan from March was not effectively implemented. By Jan. 21, the editorial staff will develop a specific schedule for instruction related to improving the overall grammar in the newspaper. That many of these problems come from submitted copy also highlights the need for greater attention to editing submitted copy. 3) Front Page - While improvement was made, more is needed on this highly visible part of our news product. Again, when followed, the procedures work and bring positive results. When deadlines are missed errors result. We will put a renewed emphasis on training and implementation for the same action plan that was issued in March. ACTION PLAN FROM MARCH: A higher level of consistency of the procedures already in place can bring even further improvement to the front page. These include a deadline for the front page of 15 minutes before the final page deadline, except for in the case of a late breaking news story, three printouts to proof, copy editing stories in the afternoon and early morning and spell checking the document prior to sending it to pre-press. Each of these is already part of the Ashland Daily Tidings editing procedures, but each can be implemented with greater fervor and consistency. Accolades: While an error audit, by definition, focuses on what we are doing wrong, the audit also revealed several areas of strengths where comment is deserved. First, the overall reduction of errors speaks volumes to the seriousness of the staff in producing the most accurate and error-free paper we can with a small news staff. I commend each and every news employee of the Daily Tidings. Secondly, management should be applauded for the addition of a news content editor for 2005, who should be able to greatly assist in our ongoing efforts to reduce errors in the paper. This is a much-needed investment in the Daily Tidings. The next error audit will be November 2005. Based on the success of this past year's effort, we expect to see even greater improvement, by reducing our overall percentage below 1 error per page from its current level of 1.35. Realizing this goal would place the Ashland Daily Tidings among the very finest in newspapers in the country in terms of accuracy and professionalism. Andrew Scot Bolsinger Editor DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Slippers Women's & Men's Slippers Ceramic Piggy Banks heloc libor rate Calenders 2005 Calender 2005 Accelerate Weightloss Products Memory Foam Mattress afsa studentloans home equity loans teleconferencing W2 Forms fasa student loans Matchmaking & Dating Scripts African Safari Conference Calls - $50/Month Security Systems student loan consolidation wholesale diamonds Currancy Exchange web conferencing Online Casinos Community Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams