Posted on: Sunday, May 20, 2001

After deadline
Formatting error cut off closing stocks

By John E. Simonds
Advertiser reader representative

Readers found good news from Wall Street in Thursday's afternoon edition of The Advertiser, but some who looked for closing prices were disappointed that the New York Exchange's alphabetized list of stocks was cut off in the T's.

A formatting error caused many of the lines to run long, taking up more space than was allotted, so that all listings were cut off after the Tesoro stock price. The day's closing stock prices are among the competitive strengths of The Advertiser's new PM edition.

Newspapers rely on the highly automated electronic feed of statistics from New York and other financial centers, a system that works smoothly nearly every day.

A page designer's correct formatting is required to make the numbers fit on the same line, and proofreading the page before it goes to press is necessary to ensure that all the items transmitted are published from A through Z.

Business editor Judi Erickson received calls from unhappy readers and investors Thursday and provided those who asked with closing prices of stocks that had not been printed. The Advertiser has instituted additional checks to make certain the problem doesn't recur.

Alert readers of The Advertiser were quick to question photos, stories and words this past week. A retired Marine Corps colonel noted something amiss with the photo of an aircraft carrier used to illustrate Thursday's review of the novel "Red Sun."

The caller, who has flown planes from carriers, said the "island" or superstructure part of the carrier is always on the starboard side. The photo showed it on the port side.

The picture, a reprint of a 1941 photo, was published just as it came from The Advertiser's photo library, though possibly it had been reversed, or "flopped," in the distant past when such practices (virtually forbidden in today's newsroom) were common. A negative was not available to document this.

The former Marine colonel said that even on carriers in the Japanese navy 60 years ago, the island would have been on the starboard side, a universal design feature making it easier for pilots of propeller planes to turn left on takeoff.

Another reader called to question an article in Thursday's PM edition about the sentencing in a previously much-publicized case of a youth sports volunteer convicted of stealing travel money. The short Associated Press item reported a heavier sentence than the caller had read in a news story elsewhere.

The caller was right. The AP was wrong. A corrective item issued by the wire service failed to get The Advertiser's attention in time to replace the earlier, inaccurate item.

And another caller chided The Advertiser for misspelling "plexiglas" in a Wednesday story about a new information device for bus riders. (It also was misspelled in a Sunday wire service story about Jack Kerouac.)

Just checking, but how many readers miss Lou Boyd? Apparently quite a few, based on comments from callers who would like something other than "Super Quiz" to provide their daily dose of little-known facts.

Boyd, who retired Dec. 30 at age 73, wrote in a column published March 21, 2000, that "the late Isaac Asimov was so prolific an author he wound up with a book in every major Dewey decimal category."

But even Asimov, a science-fiction genius writing posthumously, is no substitute for a living legend. Callers say the questions are either too obvious or obscure.

"Super Quiz" is a tentative fill-in, says Island Life editor Wanda Adams, as she continues her search for a daily trivia column to replace Boyd's "Just Checking," for years a leading syndicated feature nationally.

"Stranger Than Fiction," a group of writers using the name Kathleen Nelson, succeeded Boyd but folded after a few months and too many errors, as some Advertiser readers noticed. Boyd, a prolific researcher-writer working from his home in Seattle, has been hard to follow.

Adams is determined to find a reliable daily column of information nuggets and has sent out requests for proposals to Mainland feature suppliers. She says she is looking for a columnist who is dependable, accurate and affordable.

Boyd's reputation for total accuracy may be overrated, but readers were comfortable with him, says Adams, and that is what a long-term replacement will have to restore.