…. on show yet again!

Once more, for the umpteenth and by far the last time, this column runs with an issue its old, washed up, hack compilers suspect they could use every Saturday until the end of time …. just like we did last Saturday.

And what is the issue the MGH now regrets sounding like a cracked record over? The inability of the sub-editors at The Sydney Morning Herald (ditto its Sunday sister) to deal professionally and accurately with the crazy, often changing, page-numbering processes the layout people cook up to deal with the (mainly) Hardly Normal wraparounds the paper is sadly welded to.

As with the fun we had last Saturday as two sub-editors displayed their confusion, we again present today’s effort where what we’ll call the real front page, once the wraparound is discarded, is folioed as Page 3. As regular BUGgers would know this is not always the case.

Unlike last Saturday’s edition, where two stories were carried over from the real front page that was also page 3 and the subs couldn’t agree on what to call that real front page, we’ve only the one hiccup this time.

As you can also see from the top graphic, the sub decided the page 6 spill from the real looking front page/page 3 originated … From front page. Now of course, as we’ve also pointed out too often to mention, how can your front page also be page 3?

And for people who don’t throw the Hardly Normal wraparound into the kitchen tidy or line the cockey’s cage with it, surely this (below) remains the front page as the result of any reasonable and logical thinking process, which we guess rules out the production people at the Heralds.

Moving forward, we suspect we’ll have much fun over and over again with poorly trained subs never quite sure whether they’re Arthur or Martha and where and what are the front page, page 1 and page 3 of the issue they’re working on! And that’s just not on Saturdays!

A few points to conclude with.

Today’s edition is another example of where the splash on the fake front page – the one about forever chemicals on the throwaway wraparound – wasn’t considered worthy enough to lead the real-looking front page that’s page 3 this week. Very, very odd.

And we continue to feel sorry for Peter FitzSimons, whose column, we suspect far more often than not, goes into that kitchen tidy or finds work as a bird cage liner. He surely must hate that.

And on a separate issue, what’s with the News Review section not being a liftout?! The MGH can’t remember a time when it was embedded in the main book. Did some much-needed late advertising come in to throw things right out of kilter and not just the ongoing page-numbering debacle?

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