[Ipg-smz] A question for everyone, particularly Esther Schindler

[Daniel Dern]

On Fri, 8 Feb 2019, Joe Stanganelli wrote:
> I don’t mind having my jokes removed; just please don’t change or replace
> them.

Yeah, there was a ComputerWorld article whose lede was changed to be, as 
far as I was concerned, dissing my fellow nerds. The copy editor for my 
Internet book who tried deleting some of the jokes (thankfully, my 
contract said I had final approval), and one of my humorous columns for 
InformationWeek, which, while all of editorial was out for a multi-day 
retreat, was 50+% rewritten by a temp/freelance/intern... who didn't 
bother mentioning that they'd taken a few, ahem, liberties. And, it being 
hardcopy, wasn't fixable.

OTOH, some is inevitable and not malicious. E.g., back in those 
pre-Internet days, one of my first music reviews for the Boston Globe lost 
the last inch or so or copy -- which, of course, had the wrap-up -- to a 
late-arriving ad. That taught me that, for articles and venues like this, 
to keep the important stuff up front, rather than "build to a boffo 
finish."