Stutch, Swiss cheese, and that front page
Dr Mumbo had vowed to himself not to write about ‘that’ Australian Financial Review front page again. But then he got his weekly email wrap from editor-in-chief Michael Stutchbury.
And he does wonder if ‘Stutch’ might be over-doing it in the apology stakes given he is still apologising for the front page eight days after it first happened…
Today’s edition has everything from the Commission of Audit report, economic reform, to what’s in tomorrow’s AFR, to Nick Greiner’s breast cancer scare to well… another apology.
The final paragraph is dedicated to another detailed explanation of how “a freak chain of factors,” the led to a front page which “appeared in draft form early in the afternoon rather than in finished form at evening deadline time.”
Stutch even tells us how people keep mentioning the front page to him (not that surprising considering it went global). Someone even described it to him: “it was as if all the holes in a block of Swiss cheese had lined up“.
Indeed… but then continues going on to describe how “all hell broke loose on the day. We had to quickly work out the extent of the damage and respond to multiple media inquiries.”
Again, not that surprising given it was the front page of a national newspaper.
Stutch then reassure readers: “In the week since, we have worked out what exactly went wrong and what we have to do to avoid it happening again. To our WA readers, apologies again.”
At least sorry is not the hardest word for him.
