22/02/2013

Bad Company

I recently came across a quick interview with Company's Editor Victoria White, called Company Editor Q&A: Working On A Fashion Mag.

Magazine editors always scare intimidate me a little. Their jobs are so highly coveted and they're so successful - I always wonder how human they are. Well, now my awe has been shattered slightly.

In the Q&A Victoria spoke about her career and gave a few tips to aspiring magazine journalists. So far, so good. But then she said this...




"Please don't point out all the mistakes I've made or spelling errors in Company. Sadly we are all humans there hasn't been a computer that picks up all possible errors and sometimes we get stuff wrong. Its v irritating when someone points these out!"



Well... I will respect her wishes and not point out the missing apostrophe in her answer. I've noticed that Company magazine quite frequently has typos, including this photo which was taken from the current issue (which misses the 'a' inbetween 'you're couple'). Personally, I feel that this completely devalues the magazine. She says there hasn't been a computer to pick up the errors - how about a decent sub-editor?

As the editor of one of the country's most popular magazines - surely her standards should be higher than this. I was genuinely shocked when I read this. For someone whose career is so high up, I would have thought she would respond to criticism a bit better.

I know it probably is annoying when people point out mistakes, but it really isn't good for such a successful magazine to accept that it has typos on a regular basis and submit to sometimes just getting 'stuff wrong'. There must be something that can be done because no other magazine I read has as many typos.



8 comments:

  1. I agree with you on this.. the articles should be checked and double checked for typos before they go to press! At work I have to do this and what I write doesn't even get published world wide! It's part of their job..

    Kimberley x

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    1. Agreed! I still can't really believe she even said that - it should be checked so many times! Thanks for reading :) x

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    2. No problem, you have a lovely blog :)

      x

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  2. I've not read a Company magazine since I read an article about 'Herbal Essence Birthday' - the grammatical skills of these 'journalists' irks me a lot. They should know better.

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    1. Oh god! I'm definitely not buying it anymore, either! Thanks for reading : x

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  3. I replied to your comment on my blog but, in case you don't see it, I'll write it again here:

    I LOVED your post! Company is the absolute worst for errors. I'm pretty sure I spot every single error and I'm just a teacher, not a magazine employee!

    Surely the writer should check and double-check their article, which should then be checked and double-checked by the sub-editor, and then checked and double-checked by the editor. Or, if that's too much effort, hire a proofreader purely for that reason! Computers are unnecessary.

    I definitely think it devalues the magazine, especially when compared to similar magazines such as Glamour and Cosmo which rarely, if ever, seem to have grammatical errors.

    How disappointing that she has such low expectations of her staff!

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    1. Aw thank you! I know, I was quite shocked that she didn't even try to defend her magazine at all! It definitely devalues it, I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks so. I haven't bought a copy since I wrote this in February, and as an avid magazine writer, I haven't come across a typo since! x

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    2. Since you've had a couple of comments from people saying they stopped buying, and I had some too, I looked into the figures.

      First half of 2013:
      Glamour sales down 14.8%
      Cosmo down 15%
      Company down 36.7%

      I think it's time for a new editor!

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