My local daily newspaper this morning had the story of "12 West Virginia miners found alive," just as did most morning newspapers in the U.S. (To see this morning's U.S. newspaper front pages, hurry over to the Newseum's front-pages feature.) Of course, it didn't turn out that way in the end; the real facts of 12 deaths emerged in the middle of the night, well after most press runs.
Now, hindsight is 20/20, as the cliche goes. But here's what I think newspaper front-page editors should have done last night: Published an info box accompanying the story pointing people to the paper's website for updates on the story, and acknowledging that as of the time the paper-edition story was printed, the situation was fluid.
Acknowledging the information situation would have generated understanding by readers of why the print story got it wrong. By ignoring it, some segment of the readership figured out what happened on their own; others assumed incompetence by the newspaper's editors.
Another thought that comes to mind is more of a crisis-management solution: Since newspapers are now publishing to multiple media formats, and because they (should have) collected e-mail addresses of their print-edition customers, they could have sent out an "urgent correction" updating the story. If the paper has a cell-phone news service, they could use that, too.
Finally, those wrong front-page headlines staring out of newspaper street racks all day are embarrassing. Perhaps printed posters should have been inserted in the racks with an accurate headline and a call to visit the newspaper's website. At least that's cheaper than printing a new edition.
Post-game quarterbacking isn't terribly productive, of course, but perhaps these ideas will be useful the next time a big story turns 180 degrees in the middle of the night.
