Daily Archives: Oct. 4, 2007

Why’s that star on my paper?

From time to time, you’ll notice a small star at the top of some pages of The Eagle, such as Thursday’s 1A. On the chance that you’re wondering why it’s there, I’ll solve the mystery for you: The star means that the page changed after it first went to press.

In the case of the Thursday edition, one of the people checking the first papers off the press noticed that the Rev. Titus James’ first and last names were transposed in one place.

We fixed the error and sent a new page, with the star, to the press. That’s where the star’s true purpose comes into play.

When we make new pages, what has changed often isn’t obvious. The star tells the press operators which page is the most current.

— Michael

What do you mean by that?

A reader, Leon, politely (and correctly) took us to task in an email for failing to explain and spell out "MSA" in a special section Wednesday on Janet Harrah’s economic forecast. Leon said it took him a couple of calls to Wichita State to figure out what an MSA is, and that it stands for Metropolitan Statistical Area.

For some people, MSA is an acceptable acronym on first reference. For the newspaper, it shouldn’t be, and we have to err on the side of spelling out abbreviations that an average reader might not be familiar with. Sorry we made you do your own reporting, Leon.

– Sherry