Hundreds of copies of a free weekly newspaper had to be recalled last Friday after a mis-spelled picture caption left staff red-faced.

Last week’s Ludlow Journal featured a front-page picture story about a belltower captain called Tony Fuller who had organised a training event for young would-be bellringers.

Unfortunately the picture caption rendered the name “Tony Fuller” as “Tiny Fukker.”

It is understood that staff at the paper, which is part of Shropshire Newspapers, were alerted to the error on Friday by Mr Fuller himself.

Managers at Shropshire Newspapers swiftly ordered an immediate recall of all copies of the paper that had yet to be delivered.

The Journal has a circulation of 9,297 according to the latest ABC figures, and it is unclear how many copies had already found their way into people’s homes.

Ludlow Journal editor John Griffiths was off work on Friday, so Shropshire Star deputy editor Jon Simcock took charge of the recall operation.

However neither Mr Simcock nor anyone else from Shropshire Newspapers was prepared to comment publicly on the incident.

Comments

DAVE (04/05/2010 09:59:51)
Daft bukkers.

AJinexile (04/05/2010 10:18:23)
The story says that ‘bell ringing can be dangerous without proper training’ — so can caption writing, it seems.

Candidate (04/05/2010 10:53:41)
Isn’t this the same newspaper which is advertising for an editor on HTFP?

Anon (04/05/2010 11:40:49)
“i” is next to “o” and “k” is next to “l” on a keyboard. The caption writer must have been rushed and didn’t look at the screen while typing! We’ve all done it!

Michael Wilkinson (04/05/2010 12:22:08)
I cant understand the problem,hasn’t anyone ever heard of Fokker aircraft.
English is a precision tool,lets remember that spelling is critical to understanding the written word

Michael Wilkinson (04/05/2010 13:05:33)
What is the fuss ?
Spelling is very important and the spelling in this case,although incorrect,alluded to nothing but Mr Fullers name and cant be construed as anything else.
The Fokker aerospace group is an acceptable name for a company,what’s the difference ?

Anthony Fu*ker (04/05/2010 14:22:14)
Who’s Michael Wilkinson? The sub in question?

R McGeddon (04/05/2010 14:54:58)
Perhaps there was a sub on their last day at the Journal last week…

Eleanor Jones (04/05/2010 15:07:19)
As Michael Wilkinson says, English is a precision tool. You’d think he’d therefore put his apostrophes in the right places…

Sub (04/05/2010 15:30:56)
Michael – It says ‘Fukker’ not ‘Fokker’ – phonetically there’s a lot of difference and it sounds a lot funnier!

Northern Snapper (04/05/2010 16:08:50)
I suspect this is a cunning stunt.

Unhappysnapper (04/05/2010 17:10:39)
Dreadful photograph too. They all looklike they’re really enjoying themselves!

Former hack off for a cup of tea (04/05/2010 17:35:44)
What a dreadful mistake by Shropshire Newspapers. The least the company could do is offer an apology to the poor bloke!

James P (05/05/2010 08:54:40)
It’s the ‘tiny’ that would have upset me…

Marc Reeves (05/05/2010 10:12:06)
There but for the grace of God . . . from the former Northampton Chronicle & Echo chief sub who once captioned a front page pic of a local political bigwig as ‘leader of the ocunty council.’ No excuses…

Yorkshire Monkey (05/05/2010 12:52:23)
Hilarious! One of the best typos I’ve seen. Could Tiny Fukker now sue for libel?

Comma Chameleon (05/05/2010 14:25:53)
And newspapers now want to get rid of subs altogether for direct input. Expect far worse in the future.

glad to be out of it (05/05/2010 15:13:33)
The Knutsford Express once transposed the N and the U in a page lead headline which featured the name of the town…true! Some cynics say this should be the official spelling.

Fred (05/05/2010 15:23:40)
Putting to one side the error, the thing about this story which enrages me is the ‘no comment’. We are total hypocrites in this business. We write leaders and generally rant on about how people in public positions have a duty to answer to the public but when the **** lands on our own doorstep we don’t want to know. It makes the industry look utterly ridiculous and it happens over and over again. It’s so arrogant.
As for the error – let me guess some high-flying chief sub ‘designed’ the page and didn’t pay a bit of attention to the words. (See my comments about the Burton Mail redesign)

Virgil (07/05/2010 08:06:38)
Ahhh yes, but that Fokker was a Messerschmidt!

JC (07/05/2010 14:58:09)
Of course the paper has apologised. And Mr Fuller has said he is not upset. And there’s been an inquiry.
And if you knew how deeply upset the editor of the paper is you wouldn’t find it funny.
John Griffiths is a journalist held in extremely high esteem in the profession and it is his first error in more than 30 years with the company.It has affected him badly.
If companies put people under such tremendous pressure – he is editing three titles now instead of one and has no more hours in the day or money in his wage packet – mistakes will occur.

EAT (11/05/2010 18:17:30)
I am a friend of the reporter responsible for this accidental error. After almost 30 years in journalism without a blemish on her work record, that includes radio, tv and pr, this reporter is now awaiting a decision on her dismissal. The accused was expecting to retire next year, and live quietly with her pensioner husband. Thanks to a “colleague” who released this story of HTFP, her error has now been broadcast far more widely and is thus considered far more serious. Reading some of the vicious comments from fellow journalists printed here I am extremely glad that I am not working in your “honourable” profession.

army picture editor (14/05/2010 10:35:25)
Every sub is allowed a few mishtakes in their lives, lets forgive and forget ! I remember one sub mis-captioned a picture of a Hurricane aircraft in the Daily Telegraph, called it a Spitfire,… the phone lines on the switch board were in meltdown by 0900, he got bollocked by Max Hastings, ….end of story and we bought him a beer at lunch time !

Mark readman (21/06/2010 16:43:02)
Looks like they used a free picture as well, that is truly dreadful, Pay for a press photographer next time.