One of the many things the copy desk does each night is to do a final check of each PDF in the A section of the paper. Ideally, we're looking for headline errors, stories that don't end or other large, type-face problems. Lately, I've been doing a lot of this, and I'm wondering if that's really the best option. The reason I bring it up is that I'm normally responsible for a larger percentage of A-section pages because of doing wire.
We all know that it is harder to spot errors on the pages you produce. You know what's it's supposed to say, so you tend to read over mistakes. While I plan to continue to look through PDFs each night, I think my role should be more of a making sure all the pages are accounted for, so we don't have a situation like last night with the missing WRT 5A.
So in terms of who's best qualified to make a final perusal of the PDFs for quality control purposes, what do we think? Should it be whoever is doing the fewest pages? Should we make a rule that you can't check PDFs of your own pages (this is only for the final look, not to approve the page initially)? Should I check lifestyle pages and someone else do night side pages? Should this task be assigned each day along with the page distribution?
This step is our last defense against errors, so how can we make it better?
--Kristy
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When you have questions, the copy desk has stylistically correct answers.
7 comments:
I agree completely with the points Kristy makes. I figure the more eyes we can have on a page, the better. I think Friday was the first night we tried this new system, and I had the pleasure of perusing the PDFs. If we are going to make this change, however, I urgently would like to suggest that we no longer approve our own PDFs at all. Why not send the page to the distiller and hand off the final proof to someone else, who can give the page final approval in PDF manager. This would be a big adjustment, but I think once we got used to it, it would make the whole operation more efficient. Even though I tried to check PDFs as early in the evening as I could Friday, I was not always aware of when some pages had been sent, and at least two pages had to be replated. If we modify our procedure, I feel confident we can save time and plates.
From Mark T.
Kristy and Elizabeth seem to be on to a good plan. What do others think? No need to delay implementing any system that's better.
On Friday, our system seemed to work well. Of course, it's much easier to do when there's early deadlines and things are done early. Benton said something about what could be done later at night when there isn't always an extra set of eyes available. That should be addressed too.
I just don't like the idea of only having 1 person looking at a PDF.
Late at night, the person who proofs the page could release the PDF. I caught a few errors on PDFs I had proofed Friday night.
There is definitely merit in having as many people as possible proof key pages. It would be great if we could get two proofs of at least the 1As. I will explore that possibility.
PDF checks: Yes, let's start having someone other than the page builder make the final approvals. It can be informal to begin with, but I think we should have it designated at the beginning of each shift who will do what. I will work on that, too.
— Kerry
There is definitely merit in having as many people as possible proof key pages. It would be great if we could get two proofs of at least the 1As. I will explore that possibility.
PDF checks: Yes, let's start having someone other than the page builder make the final approvals. It can be informal to begin with, but I think we should have it designated at the beginning of each shift who will do what. I will work on that, too.
— Kerry
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