Giving props

Today (Saturday) was one of the most difficult days I've ever seen on the copy desk.  When I came in to begin working on wire pages, I found that there was no Wausau masterlink to make pages to begin with.  I wasn't able to start doing wire pages until 4 p.m.  Over the course of the day, we also found that our inability to access the budget Web site was apparently the result of a power outage in Appleton, and we later found that none of our stories were making it from NewsEdit to the respective Web sites, and not all of the pages being released from approval were making it to the printer and the archives.

The day could've been a real disaster, but our talented staff kept its cool, buckled down and still put out a darn fine paper despite our cumulative technical difficulties.  So I have to publicly give major credit to Cathy and Jen Straub for getting a Wausau masterlink made so we could do Wausau pages, and Elizabeth and Tim for their great pagination and proofreading abilities in creating quality pages and getting them out the door in a timely manner.  Props also to Elizabeth, Tim and Dan for manually inputting all of the articles with correct photos and taxonomy into Saxotech, which is, in my opinion, one of the most irritating things in the world when articles won't send.  Kudos all around to everybody who helped us out.  Today could have been a really awful day, but thanks to everybody it was only mildly irritating.

(Incidentally, how exactly does a Wausau masterlink not get made?)

Proofreading backup

From Mark T.

Thought I would post our new proofreading protocols here in case someone loses the e-mail and can't remember what he or she was supposed to do. Here it is:

1. The page designer will visually scan all display type — headlines, captions, breakouts and refers — before putting pages out for proofreading. The designer will provide the first set of initials to signal this has been done.

2. Proofreaders must place a check mark next to each element of the page to indicate that it has been checked for accuracy. This includes separate check marks for headlines, folios, stories, breakouts, refers, taglines, captions, photos, column sigs, etc. All names in captions and breakouts will be checked against the name spellings in accompanying stories.

3. The person making corrections must review the PDF after corrections are made or ensure someone else has reviewed the PDF — to scan display type and ensure all stories, captions and breakouts end — and initial the page .

4. All proofs after corrections will be placed in the baskets between Kristy’s desk and the sports department.

5. In addition, all photo captions will be entered first in NewsEdit, where they will be cq’d and spell-checked before being copied to the DC5. Whenever possible, a reporter or editor will review the caption before it’s placed with the photo in the system.

To recap: The first version of each page will be initialed by the designer and the proofreader. Each element of the page will be checked off by the proofreader. Each second version will be initialed by the corrector and whomever double-checks the corrections.

Photo captions will be written and checked in NewsEdit before entered with the photos in the system.

Kerry Lechner will oversee this process for the four daily editions to ensure that all steps are followed consistently, on every page, every night. Sirena Mankins will continue to oversee the quality control of Everest Herald pages.

RIP George Carlin

George Carlin, the famously irreverent comedian, has just died Sunday night at 71.  His most famous stand-up routine was "The Seven Words You Can Never Say on TV."

I won't reprint the words here for propriety's sake, but in keeping with the theme, what are some things (words or otherwise) you have been surprised to see appear in a newspaper?

New format, new features

I've finally taken the time to update some of the features on this blog. As you can see, we have a new, more colorful format; Sluggy the Copy Desk Slug, Brian's creation, now graces the right side of the blog; and you can now e-mail posts to whoever you want.

I've also finally looked into how everybody can post using their own ID so they don't need to sign their name at the bottom. All you need is a Google account. Send me the name of your Google e-mail and I will add your name to the Permissions list in the blog (you'll receive an e-mail asking to confirm; you'll have to sign in using your Google e-mail) and then you can write under your own name.

(Side note: I'm having trouble now publishing new posts in Safari where I didn't before. My fonts turn into gibberish and the html gets kind of wacky, so it's probably better to post in Firefox instead now.)

On the record

It may seem obvious, but if you're proofing Wausau records and come across something odd, a good place to look first for answers would be Jan or Cathy's desk.

On Saturday, Liz noticed that Wausau had the same child being born in both Saint Clare's and Saint Joseph's. I called Saint Clare's, got transferred around, and eventually learned that the kid hadn't been born there. I called Saint Joseph's to verify, got the runaround for a bit, and then was told that the hospital wouldn't release that information to me without a written information request etc. etc. etc.

After the whole 15-minute ordeal with no perfect answer, I wandered over to Cathy's desk and found, sitting right on top of other stuff, a stack of signed consent forms from the hospitals, and in 15 seconds, I found the one I was looking for.

D'oh.

Ask them first if they're there, but their desks are a good place to go for Wausau records answers.

-Benton

High noon

Something that's come up a lot lately, especially in obits and sometimes in stories:

12 noon

According to AP, it should be noon, do not put a 12 in front of it. It's redundant.

--Kristy

Fun with homonyms

The difference between "diffuse" and "defuse" seemed to cause confusion this week — probably because these words rarely come up.

Which action would you rather have the The Marathon County Bomb Squad take with bombs?

Diffuse: to pour, spread out, or disperse in every direction; spread or scatter widely

Defuse: to remove the fuse or fuze from (a bomb or other explosive device)

(Source: Webster's New World College Dictionary)

— Elizabeth

Who moved my photos?

Brian asked me to share this. It's instructions on how to search and find toned photos. It's helpful if you need to find photos that have gone missing (imagine that!) and you need them to build or send a page.

After you log in to RTC MediaManager, on the left, next to “Enter new” is “Search existing.” When you click on it, it opens to a "search toning requests" page. You can search by site, the person who ordered a photo, image number or text. If you know who ordered the photo(s) you need, you can choose the name from the pulldown list, and you will get all of the photo orders from that person. They photos can be downloaded manually by clicking on the file(s) you want to download. When you click on the number that is underlined, it opens a page that lets you view the full slug(s) and even see the image if you mouse over the little icon that looks like a computer screen.

Photos will download to your desktop. (It can take a while if you're downloading several images.) Once completely downloaded, move them by dragging them into the appropriate folder in CWNG-EDIT.

Mystique

Who are we?

As long as I have been in Wausau (698 days), the byline title we have used for stories shared among sites in central Wisconsin has been "Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers." Although I never heard an official announcement, it seems that at some point, the name of the group changed to "Gannett Central Wisconsin Media." As a result, I have been wondering lately whether "Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers" is still appropriate, or whether we should start using "Gannett Wisconsin Media" for byline titles on shared stories. Although it probably would take awhile to adjust to such a change, would a switch be worth considering?

~Elizabeth

Grabbing the brass ring

Well, we've had the carousel up on our collective Web sites for about a month now. Personally, I like it - I think it's a cool little way to show off the top stories.

I'm a little confused, though, about the flow of information to it. Are we intending to have three fresh, new stories in the carousel every day? I look right now at the Stevens Point and Marshfield sites, for example, and there's still a story from Central Wisconsin Sunday making the rounds. (Granted, it is Monday.)

Also, what about communication between editors and copy editors about what should go in the carousel? Is it usually pretty clear? I often do Rapids' front, and Jeff's made clear to me to just put one news story on the carousel because sports will take care of one and Mystique will take care of another, but I'm fuzzy what to do with Point and Marshfield.

Finally, and this is a question I've asked most of the copy editors face to face already, what do you do when none of your news stories have art attached with them, making none of them particularly good candidates for the carousel? I've been sending the standalone center for Rapids when that happens.

Benton...

Great catches

Any great catches by copy editors to share?

Let's use this place to also celebrate some of the good stuff that happens every night, to pat yourself or your coworker on the back, or point out some funny or not-so-funny stuff that almost made it to readers.

Set it and forget it

To all those who create pages/paginate: YOU MUST SET YOUR PUBLICATION INFO on EVERY page!

I am sometimes guilty of this myself, and I'll be the first to admit that when you're doing pages where none of the content will be sent to the Web, it's not a big deal if the info isn't set, BUT it is vitally important on pages where content is sent to the Web and therefore should be done on every page no matter what.

If you don't set the publication info, anything on the page will have to be manipulated manually in NewsEdit in order to send correctly to the Web. Save yourself, and anyone who's sending for you, time by setting the publication info once on the page. Also, it makes it easier to find content when the info is set.

Obviously, you can't set it when you have multiple pages in one InDesign file, but for single pages it should be set. The first time you place a story InDesign will ask you to set it. Even if it doesn't ask you, make it part of your routine to set the publication info whenever you create a page.

Please make this a priority when creating pages and save us all some time.

Kristy

Style reminders

Here are a few style errors I've been seeing repeated lately. Most of us probably know these cold, but just to make sure:

1. Abbreviate the direction part of a street name only when it's used with a specific numbered address. (Wrong: "The car crashed on W. Grand Avenue." Right: "The car crashed on West Grand Avenue, then careened out of control for a block until it came to a stop in the front lawn of a home at 1000 N. Thomas St."

2. Put the "only" where it belongs, to be clear about the meaning. (Example: "The man was only walking his dog" could mean that the man was doing nothing else but walking his dog, or that he was walking only the dog he owned and no one else's.) Sorry, I tried to think of a more hilarious example but couldn't. Anyone?

3. People are "who" and inanimate objects are "that," as in, "He was the one who dropped the pizza, " not "He was the one that dropped the pizza."

Hello, anyone?

The posts on this blog are getting fewer and further between (thanks, Kristy, for the most recent), which means we've either addressed every conceivable writing, editing and organizational concern or people are forgetting.

I know some of our more prolific bloggers have had vacation days recently, or they've been cranking hard to cover for others' vacations.

How might we keep this conversation lively each day without relying on the same two or three people? I'd welcome some thoughts. Heck, I'd welcome a reply just to know someone's still reading this blog.

— Mark T.

It happened in Apr.

There are certain words that are never abbreviated in newspaper copy, and yet these same words seem to be creeping into stories, obits and calendars. Here are some of the ones I've noticed lately.

Road, Drive, Court. Lane

Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Ohio, Texas, , Utah

April (yes, I've seen this as Apr.)

Also, please remember when you've listed an exact street address you can abbreviate Street and Avenue (800 Scott St.) but not without an address (on Scott Street).

Anyone have any others?

--Kristy