On January 5 I finally got fed up with the quality of the Saratogian (or lack thereof). I emailed the below letter that day, and, to date, have not seen it published. Can they not even take the criticism? I just resent it to them to make sure they got it. Either way, here it is:
Dear Editor,
I subscribe to and read The Saratogian primarily for its original and local content. Not a day goes by when I don’t cringe past a distracting typo or editorial blunder, each of which calls into question your editorial standards and degrades the quality of your product. But I press on. I live in and love Saratoga Springs, so I like to know what’s happening in my community.
Even though you don’t take the time to write an original editorial every day, could you please at least copy edit those you pluck from other sources? I counted four missing apostrophes from the January 5 editorial from The Poughkeepsie Journal (“Execution of Saddam a welcome development”). Additionally, the first sentence of the second paragraph declares that “Saddam was put to death today,” even though he was hanged on December 30, 2006.
There’s no copy editor listed in your masthead. Perhaps you should consider hiring one. A little copy editing goes a long way in allowing you to take pride in the quality of content you publish, and could help you earn some more respect from your readers.
Sincerely,
Gabe A_nderson
Saratoga Springs
I know I’m not the only one in town (or in the blogosphere) who feels this way.
