Chicago Tribune Tries to Stop
Publication of Feature Story Article Explored Usage
Of Vulgar Slang Term
By BROOKS BARNES Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
So much for "stop the presses."
Top editors at the Chicago Tribune tried desperately to stop publication Tuesday of a prominent feature story exploring usage of a vulgar slang term for a woman's anatomy. After discovering Tuesday morning that the story, which contained a provocative headline, had already hit the presses at the newspaper's Freedom Center printing plant, Tribune editor Ann Marie Lipinski ordered a team of high-ranking editors to manually pull the section out of pre-printed packages.
The scramble to prevent the story from reaching the street -- common in Hollywood's depiction of the newspaper business, but highly unusual in actual practice, especially at a major publication -- wasn't fully successful. Hundreds of the Tribune's 500,000 or so subscribers received the article, penned by a freelance writer on the cover of the paper's WomanNews section. Tribune editors said Teamster employees eventually forced them to stop pulling the section late last night because they needed to start printing another newspaper.
The article, which ran under the headline "You c_nt say that," was cleared by editors Geoff Brown and Cassandra West, who oversee the paper's Wednesday WomanNews section. Tribune editors said Ms. Lipinski discovered the story was slated to run at the newspaper's regular morning editorial meeting, but the section had already been preprinted ahead of the daily press run. A spokeswoman for the newspaper said a "very nominal" number of subscribers received the story and declined to comment on any possible disciplinary action as a result of the incident. She said the paper's public editor, who addresses reader issues, plans to address the situation in a future column.
An editor's note in today's edition offered an apology. "Senior editors determined that the story was inappropriate after the preprinted section went to press. Most copies were removed from Wednesday's edition of the paper, though a relatively small number of copies may still contain it. A new version of the section was printed in time to be distributed to a substantial number of readers today. Those who did not receive the revised section will find it in Thursday's Tribune. The Tribune regrets any offense and inconvenience to its readers."
Tribune Co, which also owns the Los Angeles Times and Newsday, has had a rocky few months marked by a major scandal related to overstated circulation figures at Newsday and other printing mishaps at the Chicago Tribune.
Write to Brooks Barnes at brooks.barnes at wsj.com