AFTER DEADLINE
More attention to detail in the new year

By Anner Harpham

The end of the year is a traditional time for introspection, for looking back on the highlights and failures of the previous year. And it's a time for resolutions, for promises to do better or achieve a goal.

I've been reader representative for almost a year. In that time I've heard from hundreds of you, mostly when you are unhappy with something we've done or not done.

If I could presume to make a collective resolution for the staff for 2003 it would be to be more attentive to details. The vast majority of the corrections we have run in 2002 involve simple errors of fact that should have been caught in the reporting and editing process.

If readers would make a resolution for us, I suspect it would be that we do more stories that hold people and institutions accountable, that tell us more about people in the news as well as more stories that suggest solutions or give people an opportunity to make a difference.

During the election season, readers responded enthusiastically to our long profiles of the candidates for governor and lieutenant governor. Many said it was the first time they felt they really found out about the candidates as people. Readers also told us the voters' guides we published in advance of the primary and general elections helped them make their decisions. Many readers who vote absentee wished, however, that the sections had been published earlier. Editors have promised to consider earlier publication dates before the next election.

Readers also thanked us for shedding light on problems, such as Jim Dooley's stories on questionable practices by the state community development agency and the investigation into construction contracts at the airport, and Johnny Brannon's analysis on how the state plans to finance a new prison.

And then there was Will Hoover's story in April about the success of the Waialua High School robotics team and the fact it didn't have enough money to go to a national competition. The day after the story ran, the team's travel was assured, thanks to the generosity of many in the community.

We publish hundreds of news stories and submitted opinion pieces and letters each day, and despite our best efforts we sometimes get things wrong. Considering all we do print, an average of one or two corrections a day doesn't seem like that much.

But we could have fewer.

In 2002, we misspelled names, got phone numbers wrong, gave the wrong date or time for events, wrote headlines that didn't reflect the story and sometimes just got our facts wrong. Some of our goofs were just plain silly (misspelling ketch as catch), others quite serious. Most were avoidable.

In my first After Deadline column in February, I wrote about the trust that readers have to place in us. Whatever you think of the job we do, know that we aim on a daily basis to live up to that trust, in our choice of stories and how we play them, and in the fairness and thoroughness of our reporting.

We take that responsibility seriously and we don't make light of it when we fail.

So here's a toast to keeping our resolutions — Happy New Year!

Senior Editor Anne Harpham is The Advertiser's reader representative. Call her at 525-8033 or email her at aharpham@honoluluadvertiser.com.