Why does an article about Greece receiving a $376,688 grant have a headline, “Greece receives $400k grant”?
There’s a big difference between $376,688 and $400,000. Most people (maybe not bus monitor Karen Klein) think $23,312 is a significant amount of money.
I can understand the need to round off the figure to fit the headline space, but I don’t understand why you couldn’t say, “Greece receives $377k grant.” It would fit the same space and be a lot more accurate. Aren’t newspapers supposed to be accurate?
I’m very interested in how newspapers work and would love to know why you did this.
TOM WILLARD
Rochester
Why does an article about Greece receiving a $376,688 grant have a headline, “Greece receives $400k grant”?
There’s a big difference between $376,688 and $400,000. Most people (maybe not bus monitor Karen Klein) think $23,312 is a significant amount of money.
I can understand the need to round off the figure to fit the headline space, but I don’t understand why you couldn’t say, “Greece receives $377k grant.” It would fit the same space and be a lot more accurate. Aren’t newspapers supposed to be accurate?
I’m very interested in how newspapers work and would love to know why you did this.
TOM WILLARD
Rochester
