JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC

Mark Davis, one of The Star’s two all-purpose business writers (the other being Steve Vockrodt), must be sick today. Sick at heart.

He obviously devoted  many hours to a story on Page 10-A titled “Feds target sweepstakes schemes that are KC-based.”

Stories about phony sweepstakes and other scams have an inherent appeal to many readers because there’s always the “there-but-for-the-grace-of-God-go-I-falling-for-it” dimension. So, I imagine tens of thousands of people tried to read this story in the printed edition.

It is a long story — 66 inches spanning five columns — and it was nicely laid out, with sub-heads breaking up the columns and a photo montage assembled by graphic artist Neil Nakahodo.

The problem is every column break — and I mean every column break — was botched. When you read from column one to column two, there is a contextual disconnect. From column one to column two, the text does not connect, and it’s the same with each subsequent column break. No connection.

And then, topping the disaster like a moldy cherry, the last paragraph trailed off into outer space — an incomplete sentence hanging out in the typographical breeze.

In all my years in journalism, I’ve never seen anything like it. Many times, especially in the pre-computer days, we would see columns transposed, such as what was supposed to be column two lying a couple of columns over. At least with that, the readers could put the text together, mentally, like an easy jigsaw puzzle, and make sense of the story. I’ve also seen stories disappear, like this one does, into thin air at the very end.

But never have I seen every column break screwed up, plus the “kicker” disappearing into the ether.

Mark Davis

I’ve got an email in to Davis, an outstanding reporter, to try to find out what happened. My suspicion is that a line or two — or maybe more — was inadvertently lopped off the bottom of each column, with the next column picking up with the continuation of the excised copy.

Here are the column breaks…

:: Column one to column two: “Many of the mailings that consumers receive bear official-sounding but fictitious names — National Awards Commission, North American Awards Center (break)…such as Larry Hourd.”

:: Column two to column three: “Next-Gen claims in one court filing that it has paid 77 winners (break)…winner.”

:: Column three to column four: “In addition to the direct-mail businesses, Brandes and Gra- (break)…Both men are involved in B&G Auto Sales.”

:: Column four to column five: “In 1993, the FDIC had banned him from the Kansas City area bank (break)…When Anderson and Blunt sold…)

And here’s the last line of the story…

“That’s what we call a recidivist,” said Rich, now vice president of advocacy at Consumer…”

**

Let me complete the thought…That’s bad newspaper production.