As a newspaperman, I’m paid to sweat the details, and this particular subject is a pet peeve of mine. As evidenced by this post, it’s been irking me lately. Fail as I may at times, my goal is excellence: correctness in grammar, punctuation, facts and the general assurance the news story content I read is right.

Unlike misplaced commas and the like, errors in proper names and spellings of organizations, companies and people do not fall under the header of “detail” in my view. The correctly identification and spelling of subject and source names is one of the most fundamental skills that journalists must master to be successful and to further the credibility of the business. Actually, one can argue that it’s not even a skill; it’s so rote a task that seemingly anyone could do it. (How hard is it to Google a company name, make a call for verification or have sources literally spell out, letter by letter, names? Even a name that seems simple may have an unorthodox spelling (i.e. John and Jon). But it persists as a problem, whether the source of the problem be pressure, lack of sufficient time before deadline, etc etc. Regardless, and obvious typos taken into account, misspelled names of company heads or wrong business names can slowly erode a newspaper’s credibility.

I simply make the point that while the rest of society calls companies and organizations by nicknames, abbreviated names, historical but no longer valid names or just plain wrong names, we as journalists have to have an urgency for the truth and for that which is correct. So, to close this short post, here are a few of the more common mistakes I run across, either in newspapers and in everyday living. The incorrect rendering will be following by the correct name.

• Blooms/Bloom: This is a local grocery store. Folks add an “S” to this name for no reason, just like many add “S’s” to Belk and J.C. Penney. My wife works there, and she says that when customers write out checks, they always write “Blooms,” despite the fact that outside the store, in big letters, the word appears without the “S.”
• Bi-Lo/BI-LO: With good reason, people are uncomfortable with words or names that are in all caps. Turns out, that’s what the folks at BI-LO had in mind.
• Lowe’s Home Improvement Center/Lowe’s: Home Improvement Center may make good propaganda fodder in the commercials, but Lowe’s is just plain ol’ Lowe’s.
• Walmart/Wal-Mart: Though the company seems to be modifying their image with that new sun logo thing, Wal-Mart is still listed on the NYSE and on the company Web site with the hyphen and a capital “M.”