How did Malcolm become Michael overnight?

By Julie Starr | Published: March 11, 2008

There I was yesterday, banging on in a lecture to journalism students about sub-editing. Specifically, about the importance of checking facts and figures in stories and getting names, dates and places right. Small mistakes can have a disproportionately large effect on a reader’s trust in a news organisation, said I.

And what did I see on the front page of the Herald this morning? A story about the Vatican’s revamp of the seven deadly sins attributed to a reporter called Michael Moore. But it wasn’t by Michael at all, but by Malcolm Moore, the Telegraph’s Rome-based correspondent.

Deary me.

More interesting was the fact that the paper carried a different version of the story than nzherald.co.nz, which went for a Reuters version by Philip Pullella.

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  • Jeremy Rees

    Hi Julie,
    I’m not sure about the mistake.
    But I can say that there are significant differences between the Herald Online and the Herald newspaper for sources.
    A paper like the Telegraph is happy to have its stories used in a paper on the other side of the world but not interested in having them on nzherald.co.nz where they compete directly with telegraph.co.uk
    Jeremy Rees
    Multimedia Editor
    nzherald.co.nz

  • Julie Starr

    Hi Jeremy,

    Thanks for explaining the difference.

    It’s an interesting point, given the current imperative to find efficient ways of sharing content across multiple platforms – web, mobile and print.