The Keystone cops of newspaper sub-editing have been at it again!

We’re talking once more about the subs at The Sydney Morning Herald … if you BUGgers out there haven’t guessed that already!

And yet again – for what seems like the millionth time – we’re having a go at their ongoing total lack of ability – some would call it a complete lack of professionalism – at always knowing how the edition they are working on is folioed (numbered).

Below is PAGE 3 of Tuesday’s SMH.

That’s right. It’s the pretend front page that looks more like a front page than the real front page on the wraparound – the one on the outside that’s more often than not folioed as PAGE 1.

All we’ve ever asked of the SMH subs when they plop their lazy, sad, arses down for a shift is to find out FIRST where page one begins. It’s not rocket surgery, is it?

Yet apparently it is …. far too frequently it’s way beyond the abilities of the subs who handle stories that flow inside the book from PAGE 3, like the one shown above.

Have a gecko at the two images below and weep if you want to about the state of the once great craft of subediting.

One sub got it right and had the Haylen in strife yarn originating From Page 3.

The other sub had the Support Surging story starting out FROM FRONT PAGE!

For the umpteenth time – if not the millionth – at least one SMH sub needs to know that no page 3 of any newspaper in newspaper production history has EVER been called THE FRONT PAGE! Except, of course, at Nine Entertainment Co. mastheads.

We at the Media Glass House would love this to be the last time we pick up on this shoddy craftsmanship that’s gone on for far, far, too long. But, trust us, it won’t be.

Editor’s note: the image at top is not of the SMH’s current sub-editing hub. It’s an historic photo from a time when sub-editors knew what they were doing. Well, the basics at least.

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