Don't waste your time with....USA Today

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OK I have known for years that this "newspaper" is basically a useless rag of fluff for free distribution in hotels, but would still read it occasionally.

But when I saw I decided never to read it again.


For those that might need it, (and especially moderators) don't focus on the subject of the article -that's not the subject nor intent of this thread- but rather the outlined sections that show that the same exact paragraphs were used in two different places.

Amazingly lame. How can any entity that takes itself seriously engag in this level of who cares?
 
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I find the worst newspapers and news outlets at the airport, hotels, and on planes … a fairly captive group
(to capture the hearts and minds of)
 
Our local Sunday paper jumped up to almost $3. No Thanks, it's all online.
lol.gif
 
The newspaper itself is written at 5th - 6th grade writing level. So good for the less educated population to have something to read as opposed to watching.
 
I think these days a good proofreader may have a better chance as an administrative assistant/secretary...

I worked for 1.5 years in a printing business and I'm surprised they still get young/technical people to come in the industry for the wages they pay...
Re: I used to edit math and technical books in German. Our work was double checked by 2 native German speakers to ensure no hilarious/crazy miss-spellings happened.
 
Probably just cost cutting and just not enough people proof reading the final product. When I worked for a small local newspaper years ago, the stories were layed out by hand on a master board to be sent out to the printers so it was hard to get two sets of print like the error above. They're using computers now so I can see how easy it is to get two sets of copy. Probably something left over from the editing process. When things get moved around too many times, it's easy to lose track of where things are and then not reading it one final time would be an easy mistake. While the mistake above is kinda major, there's always minor ones that get in all the time. After a while, you stop even noticing it.
 
As an individual with a journalism degree, this was probably unintentional. The writer probably wrote the whole article and sent it to lay out department. Someone wasn't paying attention and copied twice. Yes they should have proofed the copy.
 
It's like trying to satisfy the magic triangle.

Do you want to be first and fast with the news?
Do you want the newspaper to be properly proofread with few errors?
Do you want the news presented cheaply?

Can't have all three. Pick two.
 
It seems like this should be one of those free publications that
they place at the exits of certain discount stores. When the
NBA Conference finals were going on they didn't have a peep
about the Cavs and Boston series in their so called Sports
section.
 
Our local paper got bought out by USA Today or their parent company. First thing they did was fire all the printing press employees, dissolved all local production/printing operations and moved printing and production to a nearby larger city and they now truck the finished product i.e. our daily morning newspaper bearing same name it's always had ... they truck it 100 miles to our city every morning. The quality has been on a downhill slide ever since.
 
Originally Posted By: dlundblad
Typos are acceptable. How much does it happen?


I don't read this newspaper (or any really) but I agree.
 
There's only one reason to buy a news paper these days, and that's only for the coupons...Sunday paper only...
 
Originally Posted By: 4WD
I find the worst newspapers and news outlets at the airport, hotels, and on planes … a fairly captive group
(to capture the hearts and minds of)

The stations and papers pay the airports to have their products displayed as well...
 
So a potential typesetting/computer error generates this screed?? I'm usually more anti-major media than most people...even on here...but I'm scratching my head at this more as "confirmation bias" than something that reflects how good or bad the paper actually is...

If the same computer error or non-proofreading incident happened at a paper you subscribed to would it be any different?? Does USA Today typically have more incidents of this versus other dailies??, etc. In my estimation, there are many papers that suck, but computerized typeset errors aren't high on my list as to why they suck.
 
Originally Posted By: dlundblad
Typos are acceptable. How much does it happen?


I suppose that misspellings are as well? This points to a larger issue in society - if publications let things slide they'll keep sliding. Extend that to daily life and you have the lazy downhill slide that's currently going on. Heard a radio story recently that cursive writing isn't being taught because it's "too hard and requires too much discipline".

Organizations need to hold themselves to a higher standard than that. How many people did that story go through before it was printed? 5? 6? Only one?
 
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