Crossword lovers cross with the Star
Production errors prompt hundreds of angry calls, emails
You don’t mess with the puzzle people!
It is a truth long well known among newspaper folk that those loyal readers devoted to their daily and weekly puzzles will roar with fury and frustration should a news organization’s mistakes keep them from their brain-boosting puzzle pleasures.
There was nothing puzzling about the fact that my week began Monday with emails and telephone calls from several hundred readers angry and disappointed that the Sunday Star crossword clues and the previous week’s crossword solution was partially blocked by an advertisement, making it unreadable.
Unfortunately, this was the second week in a row that production problems led to puzzle errors. The previous Saturday, the puzzle solutions usually published in the Saturday Life section were inadvertently omitted.
This resulted in readers doubling down on their anger and wondering — with a great many exclamation marks — how these errors occurred and what the Star planned to do to prevent such further disruption to their puzzle habit.
“Last Saturday, I searched high and low for the answers to the Saturday crosswords, to no avail. Today I find that part of the answers to last week’s Sunday puzzle and some of the clues to today’s puzzle are missing due to advertising,” one reader wrote. “Whatever happened to proof-reading?”
“Today’s error in your paper has trumped all your previous goofs!! So much for my Sunday morning coffee and crossword,” said another reader.
“How can these things happen? Somebody needs to be fired!” said one of the angriest; whose email was signed “a subscriber and crossword devotee.”
“My favourite crossword and you slap an ad over the clues! Someone needs a wake-up call,” added another.
Many readers expressed deep disappointment and sentiments similar to that of a reader from Fergus, Ont., who told me, “My day was ruined before it even got started.
“The only thing that gets me up on a Sunday morning is the thought of the Sunday paper on my porch with the crossword. Imagine the frustration at getting only half a printed crossword.”
Among the many angry emails, some humour did emerge. My favourite: The reader who asked, “Are you trying to drive us C-R-A-Z-Y?” The answer: N-O. While I am not a puzzle person and cannot claim true understanding of the pleasures to be had in solving puzzles, this strong emotional response of so many longtime newspaper readers is cause for serious concern.
And, I can tell you, it was treated as such by the newsroom. No one involved is clueless about how much puzzles matter to longtime readers. We understand that the Star is more than a source of important news and information for its readers — it is also a vital means of entertainment and enjoyment, with puzzles a prime source of pleasure for many loyal subscribers. To these readers, puzzle errors are as egregious as the greatest of journalistic sins because it has impact on their daily life.
The Star has long understood the importance of puzzles to its readers. At a time when many news organizations have dropped all or some puzzles, largely because of the amount of expensive newsprint involved in devoting space to these diversions that fall outside our journalistic mission, the Star has maintained a regular line-up of puzzles in both the daily and weekend newspapers. It also publishes some puzzles on its website.
On learning of last weekend’s puzzle pratfall, Star editor Michael Cooke offered to send every reader who complained a “personal apology.” As I had already responded for the Star and apologized to each of those readers who emailed, I did not think this necessary. The Star also published a note to readers in Monday’s paper to apologize and make clear that the messed-up Sunday crosswords would be published the following Sunday (tomorrow), along with the regular puzzles package.
Even before I had responded to readers, managing editor Jane Davenport had taken steps to investigate how these errors occurred and how they can be prevented. She told me the Sunday mistake occurred because an ad was mistakenly placed on the puzzles page by the Star’s advertising department and editors at Pagemasters North America, the outside editorial provider with responsibility to check these pages before they are printed, did not catch the error.
In recent weeks, we have seen a number of errors in the Star that seem to be related to workflow, production and proofing issues. Given that the Star has only recently added a whole new publishing platform to its lineup — the Star Touch tablet app — and most everyone has additional responsibilities and more complexity in their jobs, it is not surprising that there should be some glitches in these early days of publishing news in the paper, online and on the tablet.
That is neither exoneration nor excuse. Whatever production issues need to be resolved, the Star cannot let down any of its readers on any of its platforms. There is nothing puzzling about the reason: Readers C-A-R-E.