I was looking at your March 24 front page on the Newseum Website. There, in a nice big headline font, you have a quote from someone in the story about seeds, and you used the word “your” when the obvious meaning of the sentence called for “you’re,” a contraction of “you are.” I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that newspapers are struggling for relevance in today’s media world. I wish this were not so; I enjoy print media, having spent my career in commercial printing. But there is so much garbled grammar and poor spelling in the electronic media. One way for newspapers to differentiate themselves is by being bastions of accuracy – in spelling and grammar as well as content. Believe me, I know how easy it is for a typo to get past even the most vigilant proofreader. But I think mixing up homonyms such as “you’re” and “your” goes beyond simple typos. I encourage your writers to take pride in their work by taking a few extra seconds to check on word usage. Let’s do all we can to ensure readers that newspapers still get it right!
Ken Schwentker
Painesville, Ohio
