Sacha Baron Cohen isn’t just upsetting sections of the gay community with his latest movie, Brüno. He’s causing all manner of confusion for sub-editors at The Guardian.
First, subs received this email:
A note about Brüno’s umlaut
Related
Hello – it looks like our diligence with the umlaut may be scuppering
our SEO, as everyone’s searching without umlaut.
So please could you leave out the umlaut from headline, link-text, standfirst, trail and slugwords.
Content from our partners
Many thanks
Catherine
Next came this:
Re: A note about Brüno’s umlaut
Just clarify that:
– we should still use the umlaut in print headlines.
– we should launch web stories without the umlaut in the furniture
– once the article appears on Google*, we should update the furniture and put the umlaut back in.
* you can check this by searching for the headline in quote marks on Google.
thanks
Celine
Finally (or possibly not), subs received this:
SUBS PLEASE READ:
Bruno’s umlaut – update
Hello,
re: Sacha Baron Cohen’s film Brüno
In a change to last night’s instruction, from now on please do not use an umlaut in the headlines and furniture for web stories.
Print headlines should still use the umlaut however.
Web subs, you can change headlines on front pages to include the umlaut.
thanks
Celine
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