The Bug‘s Media Glass House has twice now vowed never to return to one topic in particular: the inability of whoever still subs copy at The Sydney Morning Herald and its sister Sun-Herald – if anyone still does, that is! – to process cross-gutter headings with anything approaching professional aplomb.

But here we go again – with some shocking examples from the SMH over recent times.

We’ve got to conclude that maybe the Herald uses layout software with some crazy automatic logarithms that decide where a heading across two pages is to be split and how each side is ranged … or the SMH subs are shitty incompetents who couldn’t give a flying fuck how the printed paper looks. Or are too hard-worked, maybe.

Either way, it truly gives us the shits. And we know countless old subs who would be spinning in their graves over what senior editors at the SMH consider looks quite fine and dandy for their shrinking readership.

And we’re not even going to insult those old subs by suggesting how the cross-gutter heading (at top) and the ones (below) could have been quickly adjusted to make the pages look spiffy and professional like.

It’s all about using very minor and acceptable kerning or type size changes, if permitted – or preferably changing the words even! – to make the headings flow and look connected. Setting the left side of the heading LEFT and setting the right half LEFT as well would be the perfect start to such sub-editing endeavours.

Anything would be better than centering each side of the heading! Or flushing a heading right, even, when setting it left would go a long way to fixing the problem!

Those old hack subs now spinning in their graves would have considered it their professional duty to make those cross-gutter headings look seamless and perfect.

It wouldn’t have taken any of them long at all; they would have enjoyed doing it, they would have been proud of the outcome and, besides, it would have been expected of them as professional craftspeople.

And, finally, the MGH took immediate notice of this meme that appeared on social mediocre the other day…..

Anyway….enough of the great bulk of Australia’s mainstream media!