Wanted: Copy Editor, Community Newspapers

I'm starting to think that no one at Community Newspapers (AKA parent company of the Boston Herald and all the local weeklies around the area) actually bothers to read their copy before it goes into print. Case in point: A story in last week's Lexington Minuteman (available here, at least for the time being).

In an otherwise laudable piece about a laudable man, Peter Celi, the Minuteman devotes a couple of thousand words about the retiring elementary school teacher--and manages to misspell his name throughout the entire article. (They added an extra L--it's Celi, not Celli.)

When I was in Basic Newswriting Class back in my sophomore year of college, a bonehead move like misspelling a name or misidentifying an address would be an automatic F on the assignment. Worse, it would be garner at least one withering comment from the professor, an old newshand.

But, hey, reporters are human, and I'm sure the ones who work for the local weeklies aren't exactly raking in the big bucks. And because it's a weekly, a printed apology can't appear until Thursday (the next issue). However, editor (and noodge that I am), I've emailed the paper twice asking them to FOR GOD'S SAKE, CORRECT IT IN THE ONLINE EDITION. So far, no response--and no correction.

That's one of the benefits (and occasionally, drawbacks) of the Web. You can change stuff. Get a fact wrong? Fix it. Misspell the name of a beloved teacher in a lengthy article that was meant to be a tribute? FIX IT.

(And if they correct it online, I'll let you know.)