Hilarious “tombstoning” gaffe in local newspaper

This is a bit of newspaper business trivia, but us old media types pay attention to how things lay out together in a newspaper, where, say, a picture of a convicted child molester just happens to appear above a story about a local senator. No overt implication, just an unhappy or amusing juxtaposition.
In the newspaper biz, they call that “tombstoning” and today there’s an awesome example of this very thing in online edition of the local paper:

Daily Camera Tombstoning error

Who would have thought that was what the Regents of the University of Colorado, Boulder had in mind when they opted to discuss the possibility of giving freshmen bicycles, though given the Bacchanalian nature of college nowadays, that’s probably spot on.
Okay, okay, here’s a slightly expanded view:
Daily Camera Tombstoning error #2

Of course you’re now thinking “Holy cow! Every article in The Daily Camera is about sex!” given the new article of strippers versus golfers (is that going to be a bad made-for-tv movie soon?) and you’d be wrong, sorry to say, but not… entirely wrong.
Keep an eye out in your own newspaper for more examples of funny tombstoning. I bet you’ll be surprised how often you encounter something amusing like this.
Disclaimer: I write a weekly column for the Daily Camera, so it’s not like I don’t like the newspaper and their editorial team… 🙂

2 comments on “Hilarious “tombstoning” gaffe in local newspaper

  1. Funny enough these naked bike riders were the first thing I saw when we decided to move here and took a drive to Boulder. And my 12 year old one saw it too.
    It went like this: “Oh some of them don’t wear shirts…wait: none of them is wearing shirts…oh some don’t wear pants either…OMG: They’re all nudy :-)”
    Didn’t see any naked policemen around, though. But then: How do you spot a naked police officer like anyway?

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