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Spelling blunder mars move to centralised subbing

A regional daily’s move to a centralised subbing hub was marred by an editorial howler which mis-spelt the name of the city in which it is based.

Yesterday saw the subbing operation for The Argus, Brighton, moved to the Southampton offices of the Southern Daily Echo.

Unfortunately the first edition produced by the new hub contained a story which twice rendered the word ‘Brighton’ as ‘Brighten.’

The gaffe was believed to have been caused by a spellchecker automatically changing the city’s spelling.

The howler was first spotted by Brighton-based media website journalism.co.uk which commented: “Today’s edition brings with it a typo perfectly emblematic of the staff’s complaints that local papers need subs with local knowledge.”

Argus editor Michael Beard has not responded to requests for a comment.

10 comments

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  • December 21, 2010 at 11:52 am
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    Perhaps he’ll respond if you call him Michael Beerd.

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  • December 21, 2010 at 11:58 am
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    Spellcheckers are always, always dangerous – but of course they get used more as the pressure builds on fewer and fewer subs. Eventually they will update the Southampton spellcheck library, but meanwhile…

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  • December 21, 2010 at 12:16 pm
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    Given the mistake happened in Southampton, shouldn’t you be asking the editor there, Ian Murray, for a quote? Who does edit The Argus these days? Isn’t that part of the problem?

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  • December 21, 2010 at 1:56 pm
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    Not sure whether to laugh or cry. It certainly demonstrates why subbing hubs are a bad, bad idea dreamt up by jumped-up little ad reps. Hopefully the apologists will stop defending the centralisation process. Yes, financial considerations are a concern. No, newspapers do not to be shred apart by short-sighted decisions.

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  • December 21, 2010 at 2:58 pm
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    Amazing how Private Eye found anything for their foul-up files in the perfect world before central subbing.

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  • December 21, 2010 at 4:36 pm
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    I honestly think this is a total abomination, and as someone who trains journalists I feel like weeping!

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  • December 22, 2010 at 10:40 am
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    Constant sorrow misses the point. No-one suggests mistakes didnt get through before. It’s just that a lot more get through now. My paper once did four checks on news pages before sending to print. Lucky if they get a quick glance from an over-worked content manager of whatever they call displaced editors-subs now. Mistakes that caused a row ten years ago now produce a fatalistic shrug of the the shoulders. Unfair to single out Argus though. As for Mr Beard, he just did what all editors and group editors do now- do what head office tell him. There but for the grace of God and all that…

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  • December 22, 2010 at 4:28 pm
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    “Mistakes that caused a row ten years ago now produce a fatalistic shrug of the the shoulders.” That’s the point, surely. A blunder like that on the quality Trinity Mirror title on which I worked would have led to an inquest as big as the Chilcot inquiry. These days, they bemoan that ‘s*** happens and anyway, standards of English are so low these days that plenty of people won’t notice.”

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