Publishing Humor

From a co-worker:

I found this bit from a Dave Barry column. He is describing the newspaper business, but it sounds like the process we go through in the magazine business.

Q: How come when I read a newspaper story on a topic I'm familiar with, it always contains errors?

A: This requires a complex team effort, which I will explain by putting key terms in capital letters: First, the REPORTER gathers information by interviewing PEOPLE and trying to write down what they say, getting approximately 35 percent of it right. The REPORTER then writes a STORY, which goes to an EDITOR, who bitterly resents the REPORTER because the REPORTER gets to go outside sometimes, whereas the EDITOR is stuck in the building eating NEWSPAPER CAFETERIA ``FOOD'' that was originally developed by construction-industry researchers as a substitute for PLYWOOD.

The EDITOR, following journalism tradition, decides that the REPORTER has put the real point of the story in the 14th paragraph, which the EDITOR then attempts to move using the ``cut and paste command,'' which results in the story disappearing into ANOTHER DIMENSION, partly because the EDITOR, like most journalists, has the mechanical aptitude of a RUTABAGA, but also because the NEW COMPUTER SYSTEM has a few ``bugs'' as a result of being installed by a low-bid VENDOR whose previous experience consisted of servicing WHACK-A-MOLE GAMES.

So the REPORTER and the EDITOR, who now hate each other even more than they already did, hastily slap a story together from memory, then turn it over to a GRAPHIC DESIGN PERSON who cannot actually read but is a wizard on the APPLE MACINTOSH, and who will cut any remaining accurate sentences out of the story to make room on the page for a colorful, ``reader-friendly'' CHART, which was actually supposed to illustrate a story in an entirely different SECTION.

Yes, it's a lot of work, but we do it night after night, with story after story, all so that when you, the reader, go out to your front yard to get your newspaper, it's not there. Check your roof, OK?