“A mistake is worse than a missed story or getting beat by a competitor. Getting lectured by a windbag politician is even better than making a mistake in a story,” writes Robinson.

According to Robinson, the small mistakes (misspelled names, wrong dates or simple facts) are the worst and “have the greatest personal consequences.”

He cites the example of a story about the local high school football team, in which the paper got the wrong name for the young goalkeeper.

“Most readers wouldn't notice or care, but the person whose name is left out certainly does.”

Clearly a case of achievement-theft, at the expense of the student.

To help avoid careless mistakes, the News & Record established a policy for reporters, making them annotate their copies to say they have doubled-checked names, ages, addresses, phone numbers, days and dates before they submit a piece to an editor.

But for the occasional mistake that slips through, promptly publishing a correction is the only sensible thing to do.

“We have a strict policy to correct errors of fact as soon as we learn of them. Setting the record straight is vital to maintaining credibility.”

Should correction boxes be published on the first page, as suggested by some readers? For the News & Record, “it is rare that the news value of a correction is worth that prominence” and the

According to Robinson, the News & Record runs at a 92% accuracy rate. A good score, especially in light of a study by Scott R Maier, an associate professor at the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication, which found that 98% of newspaper mistakes go uncorrected. But as a reader of the News & Record pointed out, “are you not mindful, John, of the pleasure and delight such errata bring to those who discover them?”

Take a look here for the Guardian’s corrections policy.

Source: News & Record editor’s blog through Poynter Romenesko