The Style Book of The Detroit News

For helpful suggestions the editor is beholden to the style books of the United States Government Printing Office, the Universities of Missouri, Iowa and Montana, the Indianapolis News, the Chicago Herald, and the New York Evening Post; to Newspaper Writing and Editing, by Willard G. Bleyer; Newspaper Editing, by Grant M. Hyde; The Writing of News, by Charles G. Ross; and to the New York Tribune for permission to make applicable to Michigan its digest of the libel laws of New York.
The inscriptions on the building of The News, reprinted in this book in boxes, were written by Prof. Fred N. Scott, of the University of Michigan.
THE HOME OF THE DETROIT NEWS Fort Street, Second Avenue and Lafayette Boulevard
The Style Book OF The Detroit News Edited by A. L. WEEKS Published and Copyrighted 1918 by The Evening News Association Detroit
This edition consists of 1,000 copies, of which this is No. 625
Formation of a newspaper's ideals comes through a process of years. The best traditions of the past, blending with hopes of the future, should be the writer's guide for the day. Nov. 1, 1916, the editor-in-chief of The Detroit News, in a letter to the managing editor, wrote his interpretation of the principles under which the staff should work, in striving toward those journalistic ideals to which this paper feels itself dedicated. His summary of the best practices of the profession follows:
The Detroit News should be:
We should work to have the word RELIABLE stamped on every page of the paper.
The place to commence this is with the staff members: First, getting men and women of character to do the writing and editing; and then training them in our way of thinking and handling news and other reading matter.
If you make an error you have two duties to perform—one to the person misrepresented and one to your reading public. Never leave the reader of The News misinformed on any subject. If you wrongfully write that a man has done something that he did not do, or has said something that he did not say, you do him an injustice—that's one. But you also do thousands of readers an injustice, leaving them misinformed as to the character of the man dealt with. Corrections should never be made grudgingly. Always make them cheerfully, fully, and in larger type than the error, if there is any difference.