Editorial: A few words on an error

Published 12:00 am Friday, January 26, 2007

We messed up.

On the front page of Thursday&8217;s paper was a story about the Albert Lea Economic Development Agency&8217;s annual report. The story was correct through and through except for the headline and the first sentence.

The headline said, &8220;Company coming, but name remains unknown.&8221;

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The first sentence said, &8220;A large company with good jobs is coming to Albert Lea.&8221;

Both were wrong.

In the newspaper business &8212; when we mess up, we fess up. People can hold our content in their hands and soak it up. It isn&8217;t passive, gone in a flash. That means we have a higher standard to meet.

So we admit our errors.

The headline should have said: &8220;Company could be coming to Albert Lea.&8221;

The first sentence should have said: &8220;A large company with good jobs could be coming to Albert Lea.&8221;

For most errors, we write a correction, and it appears on Page 3, as one does today. For this correction, we wanted to draw greater attention to it to give you, the reader, a little insight. Why did the error happen? It happened because of a simple hearing mistake. A source, in a large room full of people, said something, and the Tribune writer misheard it. Human error. It can&8217;t be

avoided in any trade.

Our content is on target and credible almost all the time. Almost. Compare us to any newspaper of a town the same approximate size and you will find we stand out as a quality, credible newspaper. We have pride in our work, and we have pride in Albert Lea.

We assure you that we take our content and our errors seriously and to heart.