Press Detectives: The Error Hunters

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 2, 24 March 1927, Page 11 (Supplement)

Press Detectives: The Error Hunters

'J'HERE is no more arduous task connected with the produetion of a newspaper than that of the proof-reader, more rightly known as a “corrector of the press.” He is a man of whom the greatest accuracy is demanded. He must be a veritable fount of general knowledge, relied on to detect not only mechanical, typographical, grammatical or literary errors, but also any libellous, scandalous or otherwise hurtful items of news which may, in the hurlyburly of newspaper rush, escape those through whose hands the copy has previously passed. In short the proof-reader is the “last line of defence” in the production of a “clean” newspaper in every sense of the word. When the copy is sent to the composing room from the sub-editcrial department it is set up by the linotype operators and a proof is “pulled” of the type set by him. This proof, with the

original copy, is sent to the reading department, where it is immediately taken in hand by one of the reading staff. Each reader has an assistant to check any inaccuracies or omissions from the copy which the operator may have made in setting it up. A great deal depends on the assistant, who must be wideawake and ready to check any variation between the copy and the proof on which the reader is working. The chief reader (Mr. N. Wallace) has with him a capable staff of experienced readers and revisers, the duty of a reviser being to check the marks made by the reader on a clean proof sent back after the corrections have been made. With this modern system of “combing” proofs for errors the minimum of inaccuracies should appear in a newspaper.