We frequently focus on concerns regarding ethical practice and the news media’s liberal bias, but during the course of a week, Star-Telegram readers raise many down-to-earth issues as they peruse the paper.
Their mix of questions moves beyond news operations, ranging from queries about advertising to complaints about poor legibility when ink levels on the presses are off the mark.
Usually, readers are concentrating on bread-and-butter issues. Here are a couple of examples.
Recently, an issue that crops up occasionally generated a flurry of calls and e-mail. Readers were complaining about no folio lines on some pages.
Folio lines contain the date and page number and run in the top outside corners of pages. Sometimes they’re there; sometimes they’re half there; sometimes they’re just not there. It’s an irritation that readers don’t need.
One reader asked: “Are you guys ever going to figure out how to get the page number and date on all those pages that don’t have that information? Can’t you see those blank spots?”
This problem is difficult for me to explain — I’m mechanically challenged. For me, a major victory in life is figuring out how to assemble a blender to make margaritas, so explaining a press-related problem is a breathtaking step, but I’ll try.
Every page’s folio line is on the black-ink press plate for that page, which is attached to huge cylinders on a press. The cylinders are adjusted to lay the image of the page perfectly within the invisible boundaries of what will become a page.
If cylinders are out of adjustment, the page image moves too high or too low, cutting off either the bottom of the image (which chops off type) or the top (which chops off all or part of the folio line).
Press runs are conducted at extremely high speed because the printing and distribution systems for a newspaper as large as the Star-Telegram have an extremely narrow window within which to produce and deliver the paper.
With everything moving so quickly, a cylinder that creeps out of alignment, however slightly, creates problems in a flash. Press operators work quickly to correct the situation, but some papers with folio line issues invariably get into the distribution system.
To answer that one reader’s question, yes, we see the blank spots. We make corrections as quickly as possible and regret the problem.
Moving on to other areas of reader concerns, those who complained on the March 7 election day about a judicial candidate’s sticky-note ad on Page One will be glad to know that the Star-Telegram has clarified policy that pertains to such advertising.
Special guidelines already apply to political news and advertisements that run on election days to assure fairness and avoid the pitfalls of potentially unethical practice.
To make sure that the spirit of those guidelines is followed consistently, the Star-Telegram has made it clear that it will not accept either sticky-note political ads for Page One or political ads on the plastic bags that enclose home-delivered papers for distribution on election days.
Finally, I should mention that this column is an experiment in writing shorter pieces that respect readers’ time. Those who have read this far have waded through about 550 words.
What if the average op-ed column ran at that length instead of the usual 750 to 800 words? We’d like to know what you think.
