What ever happened to proofreading?

[J Kendrick]

I'd put it down to lazy or sloppy.

I'd put it down to a news guy who learned "old school"... writing quick 40 second news pieces to meet top of the hour deadlines on old newsroom typewriters that are all in caps... no lower case at all... and then wasting no time moving on to his next news assignment and his next new deadline only an hour away.

There's not enough time in the day for a busy radio news reporter to worry about what the text looks like. It's Radio news first and foremost... and getting the story right and getting it on the air always comes first. What it might look like to lurkers on the website who might split hairs about the appearance of the typing comes second.

[Paul P]

If the old dog can't adjust to today's way of doing things, the old dog needs to move on.

[J Kendrick]

If the old dog can't adjust to today's way of doing things, the old dog needs to move on.

The Internet not withstanding...

It's still a *radio station* first and foremost.

It is not a website first... that just happens to have a radio station attached to it.

Good thing he wasn't writing his story in Shorthand...

[Paul P]

If the old dog can't adjust to today's way of doing things, the old dog needs to move on.

It's still a *radio station* first and foremost.

It is not a website first... that just happens to have a radio station attached to it.

I'm sure there are a number of folks who actually work in radio newsrooms today, and their managers, that would disagree with you.

[J Kendrick]

It's still a *radio station* first and foremost.

It is not a website first... that just happens to have a radio station attached to it.

I'm sure there are a number of folks who actually work in radio newsrooms today, and their managers, that would disagree with you.

Maybe so... but...

That still does not change the fact that it is a radio station first ... and a website second.

... and that would lead us into a debate about current Radio management philosophies... a debate that belongs more in that other discussion thread on this board titled "What's It Going To Take...?" than it does in a thread about proofreading.

[Mike Cleaver]

You think Warren Barker would have put up with that kind of crap?
The website represents the radio station to the growing number of people who access their content on line.
In case you haven't noticed, over 50 per cent of Canadians now have smart phones.
For a station that still bills itself as "BC's News Leader," you'd better be able to spell, construct a proper sentence, know what needs to be capitalized and where the commas and periods go.
That type of crap writing is OK for texting and blogging (but most blogs are pretty well written except for some typos) but not on a corporate website.
Also, the website is the last thing on the list of newsroom things to do, after all the other stuff people working there are supposed to do these days.
But that doesn't mean sloppy presentation is any more acceptable there than it is "on the air."

[J Kendrick]

... you'd better be able to spell, construct a proper sentence, know what needs to be capitalized and where the commas and periods go....

Certainly no argument here about the need for proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Radio and TV news copy, however, has traditionally been written double spaced and *all* in Caps. That very same long-held practice of using all caps in news copy really doesn't go over very well on the Internet where writing all in upper case is now considered to be shouting.

Another question also comes to mind here when we are dealing with the possible criticisms of any given reporter's writing as it may appear on the station's website following the initial broadcast: Is the typing that we then see on the website actually that of the reporter whose byline appears at the top of the news story in question or is it actually the typing of some other unnamed person in the newsroom who has transcribed that same reporter's on-air voice report into text... while the reporter has since moved on to his or her next assignment?

[Mike Cleaver]

J Kendrick: In the case of CKNW when I was working there, the website copy always was a transcript of the reporter's recorded report (unless that reporter had filed a copy story) done by the desker who also was doing phone checks, answering the phones, recording those reports and transcribing them, writing stories of his/her own, doing all the other little niggling things that have to be done in a newsroom, often to the detriment of the product.
I come from the typewriter era myself and yes, we did all caps, ellipses and every sentence on a new line.
But if I made a major typo, I'd just re-type the correct word and keep on going.
In editing before air with a black magic marker, the typos would be blotted out.
I used the same technique with overly wordy BN copy that sometimes I did not have time to re-write.
Doing three newscasts an hour during morning drive is a bit of a chore.
It was back then, it's even worse these days when you can be servicing up to 4 stations at once.
But the websites are a station's Corporate Face and are becoming (at least for news stations, newspapers and magazines) more important every day as people gravitate away from traditional scheduled radio and tv broadcasts.
They want their news and information when they want it, not when some program or news director decides to give it to them.

[J Kendrick]

But the websites are a station's Corporate Face and are becoming (at least for news stations, newspapers and magazines) more important every day as people gravitate away from traditional scheduled radio and tv broadcasts.They want their news and information when they want it, not when some program or news director decides to give it to them.

All very true, I agree.... but... no matter how you cut it....

It is still a radio station first and foremost... and a website second.

Otherwise, why have call letters and put up a transmitter?

[Howaboutthat]

F F S Kendrick! No one is disagreeing it's a f***ing radio station!
All those who have actually BEEN in a newsroom in the past 5 years are trying to get thru your thick skull, is that things have changed and an online precense is just about as important as a broadcast one these days and everyone in the business, especially information-driven operations, must adjust to it.
Here's an analogy you might get.
Remember you were told to treat every mike as an open one?
These days you need to treat everything you write as though it will appear online.

[J Kendrick]

...things have changed and an online precense is just about as important as a broadcast one these days and everyone in the business, especially information-driven operations, must adjust to it.

Of course, an online presence is *almost* as important as a broadcast one these days. Nobody here is arguing that point.

But...

It is still radio. It is not the internet with radio as a sideline.

[Paul P]

...things have changed and an online precense is just about as important as a broadcast one these days and everyone in the business, especially information-driven operations, must adjust to it.

Of course, an online presence is *almost* as important as a broadcast one these days. Nobody here is arguing that point.

But...

It is still radio. It is not the internet with radio as a sideline.

Wow, let's say the same thing over and over and over.

[Buckley]

It is still radio. It is not the internet with radio as a sideline.

For now, but eventually I could see that going the same way print news is going... it would be like saying it's fine for the online newspaper to have typos if the regular paper doesn't (I know the analogy is somewhat weak). As radio continues to lose listeners through traditional means but maybe picks up a few visitors to the website who can't be bothered finding a radio (I don't have a tune-able radio in my house or at my office, just the one in my car), they're going to need to step up their online game, otherwise they look like a joke of an organization. I can't take a news organization seriously if any of their means of news delivery has errors. If they can't handle everything, maybe they are best just updating their website to be one big "listen live" button, and delivering their news via audio only.

Another weak analogy: It'd be like owning a hardware store that rents movies in the back (I've seen these in smaller towns), but when people complain that the discs are scratched and they can't watch the movies, the owner says "eh, well what do you want, we're a hardware store?" Essentially, you're either in the business or you're out of it. You can't half-ass any aspect of what you want to do, or your entire organization looks half-assed. I think that's what people are trying to say (not that I want to defend some of this lot...)

...things have changed and an online precense ...

Howaboutthatcomment, might want to watch the unnecessary comments ("trying to get thru your thick skull") with spelling like that in a thread about using spellcheck ("precense"). A reply to a comment I made on one of my videos seems relevant here, the person called me the "R" word because they didn't agree with my opinions, but their comment appeared as though it was written by a 12 year old with a learning disability:

When calling someone mentally handicapped or questioning their intelligence, one should be mindful of their own spelling and grammar. In other words, don't call someone a r****d when you spell like a r****d.

[Neumann Sennheiser]

Another weak analogy: It'd be like owning a hardware store that rents movies in the back (I've seen these in smaller towns), but when people complain that the discs are scratched and they can't watch the movies, the owner says "eh, well what do you want, we're a hardware store?" Essentially, you're either in the business or you're out of it. You can't half-ass any aspect of what you want to do, or your entire organization looks half-assed.

Not weak. I'd say you nailed it.
(pun unintended)