The Daily Telegraph has been left red-faced after mixing up its own radio critic, Jemima Lewis, with the film producer Jemima Goldsmith, formerly Jemima Khan, in yesterday’s paper.
Subs mixed up Lewis and Goldsmith, who previously had a column in the paper, in a teaser for an article by Lewis on the “shake-up at Radio 2”.
The promo pictured Jemima Goldsmith and used her former name, Jemima Khan, instead of the paper’s radio critic’s picture and name.
Lewis’ column headlined: “Why every woman is the right man for the job in Radio 2 reshuffle” has appeared today with the correct byline and picture.
Reacting to yesterday’s error, Lewis tweeted: “My own newspaper appears to have mistaken me, their regular radio reviewer, for a millionaire celebrity. God, I miss subs.”
The radio critic said she didn’t know “whether to be outraged or flattered” by the mix-up in response to a tweet by journalist Julie Nightingale highlighting the mistake.
Yes! Lovely pic of Jemima Khan/Goldsmith . . . pic.twitter.com/jLvMMTvmWK
— Julie Nightingale (@JulieMediumHare) January 15, 2019
Jemima Goldsmith replied: “Def outraged. (I’m flattered). To be fair I did have a regular weekly column on the same paper, until I (& the paper) realised I only had six strongly held opinions.”
Lewis said she had received an apology from the newspaper for the subbing mix-up.
Some journalists seized on the mistake to stress the importance of keeping sub-editors – who have suffered mass redundancies across the industry with the move to digital – on staff:
Let’s sack all the subs. What can go wrong! https://t.co/oWIXvhpZdo
— simon read (@simonnread) January 15, 2019
Here's why we need to bring back sub editors #journalism https://t.co/mK5LnttsT6
— Gill Oliver (@Justajourno) January 16, 2019
This is brilliant. Should be used as an example of why subs are still desperately needed, whatever the powers that be think!
— Lebby Eyres (@LebbyE) January 15, 2019
The Telegraph Media Group outsourced much of its sub-editing on its titles to Press Association in March 2017. Press Gazette understands PA was not involved in creating or subbing the promo that contained the error.
Press Gazette has contacted the Telegraph for a statement on the error in yesterday’s paper.
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