For the record
Last year, we published 252 corrections. Not great, but difficult to gauge because we don't have anything to compare it with. Well, that's not precisely true; I could compare it with The Boston Globe's 1,031. It would make me feel better, but it's hardly fair as the Globe publishes measurably more stories than the News & Record. (Several newspapers' totals are here, thanks to Romenesko.)
I'm going to write a newspaper column about this topic, but here's the essence: by far, most of the errors were caused by simple carelessness. Transposed digits in a telephone number. Misspelled names in our sports agate. Misread the date off a news release. We must do better.
We also received 291 responses last year to our accuracy survey. (We randomly mail surveys every week to people quoted in our stories, asking them about the accuracy of the story, headline and photograph in which they were featured.) Of those, 252 (88 percent) noted no errors. Not bad, but we still must do better.
