Wise Startup Blog

So it looks like Michael Bloomberg’s media wing is suffering quite a bit lately with him absent in City Hall. Bloomberg reported that Steve Jobs had in fact died last week, after publishing his obituary prior to his …actual death.

In addition to this gaffe, Bloomberg also just published word on Sarah Palin and her rumored DUI. Turns out, the error was printed online, and after the error was discovered, it was quickly fixed with no retraction printed. It appears the Bloomberg staff had meant to write that Sarah Palin’s husband had actually been convicted of a DUI as the New York Times had reported.

Bloomberg and Blogging Don’t Mix

Being a traditional media company and competing in this digital world takes a lot of work. The precedent needs to be set from upper management and filtered through even the lowest of employees.

In the print world, an error would normally be picked up by an editor, simply because the reviewal process was so long and tedious, that most errors would get spotted. With this immediate age of instant-printing, there is much less time for editorial review.

Bloomberg needs to seriously look at their editorial review process and possibly set up a “staging server,” along the lines of many web firms. This way they can have an almost-live setting to finalize everything before it’s pushed live.

Editorial Standards Still Count in Digital

Just because you read something online, doesn’t mean it’s any different from reading it in print. If Bloomberg printed that Sarah Palin had been convicted of a DUI, they would most definitely write a retraction. The same principle needs to apply for the digital realm.

No matter how long material is actually “live,” the retractions still need to be written. Once a story is pushed, based on syndication, it could reach hundreds of thousands of readers, effectively causing the same exposure-effects as printing an error in print.

Bloomberg, with increasing pressure from the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal needs to evaluate their editorial standards, review process and start getting its act back in shape.

They may be lucky Mayor Bloomberg is about to leave office, so that they can get him to come back in and turn this thing around.