By Anne Harpham

Readers expect us to get the facts right. And when we don't, our credibility is on the line. As it should be.

We know that even mundane errors, such as obvious typos or a missing word, cause readers to question whether they can trust us.

We also know mistakes will occur. No newspaper can avoid them. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't do what we can to reduce errors and get at their causes.

Accuracy is of paramount importance, and we are serious about trying to reduce the number of errors that make it into the paper.

As of Friday, we had published about 175 corrections this year, probably on a par with other newspapers our size. But that's too many.

About 20 percent of those errors we couldn't do much to avoid, because they were passed on to us by news sources — wrong names or dates and times for events.

But most of the mistakes were avoidable, caused by a mental lapse or a failure to check a fact or reconcile an inconsistency. Sometimes those errors occurred because we didn't follow our policies on checking information, like failing to call a phone number in a listing to make sure it's correct. And sometimes errors were introduced by editors.

We have made one of our goals for the newsroom to get a better handle on how mistakes happen and figure out how to reduce them.

As part of our ongoing discussions on accuracy, we have been talking about how we handle corrections, both in correcting the mistake in the paper and tracking its source.

Reporters, editors, photographers, artists and page designers all were invited to take part in discussions on how corrections should be handled to ensure that everyone shares the commitment to reducing preventable errors.

As a result, we are making some changes, effective today.

The change that will be most apparent to readers is how we word our corrections.

Some readers have wondered why our corrections specified who made the error — a reporter, editor, page designer, artist or photographer. We instituted that policy in 1996 to be more transparent, to let readers know who caused the error, and frankly to let the staff know they were going to be held publicly accountable for their mistakes.

Other newspapers have a similar policy. But most simply correct the error without saying who or what caused the problem.

Starting today, in most cases we will no longer specify who made an error. We have decided most readers don't care how we made the mistake.

Most important, we believe that everyone on the staff "owns" every mistake in the paper. The difference is subtle, but by saying that the newspaper erred, rather than laying blame on an individual, we are affirming we all have a hand in maintaining the newspaper's credibility.

We are also making internal changes.

When a mistake is made, every staff member involved will be asked to describe briefly in writing how the error occurred and how it could have been avoided. They also will be asked for suggestions on any changes that could be implemented to avoid such errors. Those reports will be reviewed by senior editors, who will try to dig deeper into the cause of a mistake.

We may find a name was misspelled because a reporter was juggling three assignments on deadline, or because a reference book was missing, or because the name was wrong in one of the clips from our library. That kind of information will help avoid future mistakes.

We also are tracking how many errors we make and what caused them. We want to use that information to identify trends and see if we are making progress in reducing errors. At the end of the year, I'll report to you on how we did.

Senior editor Anne Harpham is the reader representative of The Advertiser. Reach her at 525-8033 or aharpham@honoluluadvertiser.com.