Let’s look at an example of what happens when once-respectable news organisations make drastic cutbacks to editorial staff — a story on the Fairfax websites credited to “AP and smh.com.au”.

Here’s the first par in the AP original:

NEW YORK (AP) — While Microsoft Corp. prepares to release the next incarnation of Windows on Oct. 22, Apple Inc. is cutting ahead, launching a new version of its operating system for Mac computers on Friday.

And here’s the first par in the Fairfax re-write:

While Microsoft prepares to release the next incarnation of Windows on October 22, Apple is cutting ahead, has launched a new version of its operating system for Mac computers today.

It’s easy massaging wire stories for the paper’s website: simply switch one verb from present to past tense, completely screwed up the whole sentence, then write an assault on the English language like this sentence:

It has been reported that it will Tiger users can just skip the more expensive option and just purchase the $A39 upgrade but it’s a case of buyer beware.

That it will writers should just always be careful of just using the same word too many times in the one sentence.

I know there’s really important work for sub-editors to be doing on the latest lifestyle magazine liftout about the best laneways in Melbourne and Sydney’s coolest gastro-pubs, but shouldn’t little things like intelligible sentences in news reports be a media organisation’s bread and butter? And if Fairfax and News Ltd are serious about putting stuff like this behind a paywall how can they expect anyone to pay for it?