Readers of the Kansas City Star this morning may have thought some of their favorite comics and puzzles seemed somewhat familiar to them.
They were. In fact, they were identical!
The Star made a major mistake by reprinting its entire Page D5 in its Friday paper in its Saturday edition on Page C5. The comics, crossword puzzle, Wordy Gurdy, Word Game and so on are identical.
You can guarantee that the McClatchy-owned newspaper has received several complaints, particularly by loyal subscribers, many of whom seem to live and die over their daily Crossword Puzzle.
It also highlights that the ongoing personnel cuts have impacted all aspects of the newspaper product. It is also surprising since the paper has one of the most sophisticated printing operations in the country.
“It is a real bonehead mistake in today’s Star,” noted a Bottom Line reader, who did see a bright side to the mistake.
“It sure made my crossword puzzle easy though.”
UPDATE: After posting this story on Bottom Line the Star posted this announcement on its Web site: We inadvertently re-printed Friday’s comics/puzzle page in Saturday’s FYI section. Below is a link to the correct version in a printable .pdf format. Saturday’s comics page also will be printed in Monday’s FYI section. media.kansascity.com/images/122212-comicspage.pdf
We’re sorry for the error and hope you all have a Happy Holiday.— Laurie Mansfield, Assistant Managing Editor, Features; [email protected]
ALL ARE HATERS
Based on an op-ed and articles today, you are all simply haters..
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STAR EMPLOYEES OVERWORKED
Yeah, it is sophisticated, but a lot of the work still comes down to people who have way too much to do and not enough time to do it.
People leave, or get laid off, but the work still needs to be done. So people get new duties all of a sudden.
I’m sure Fannin was getting a lot of calls about this one, and….oh. wait. office dark this week.
COULD BE START OF A TREND
Saturday’s FYI was printed last night. Friday’s FYI was probably printed Wednesday or Thursday on the day shift. The mistake lies with composing/pagination who processed the page. They did get the dates right, just used the file twice.
The Star makes all sorts of mistakes in the printing process, but they’re usually caught by the last step. Most mistakes that get out are never even noticed by the public.
This might just be the start of a trend as they are laying off 8 pressmen, thanks to their highly paid consultants and will soon be down to 3 presses as they begin the cutdown of the presses to a smaller web, ala NY Times, & USA Today.
Hopefully, the new Pressroom manager, Jennifer Kisser, can keep up. She’s done a lot of jobs for the Star, but this will be her toughest one yet.
QUESTIONS COVERAGE DECISIONS
These things will occasionally happen, especially if an operation is short on people to begin with. I’m far more concerned about The Star’s coverage decisions - some stories (e.g., the Belcher murder-suicide) receive too much play while others are either ignored altogether or get too little ink.