Front-page gremlin hits the headlines

THE Australian financial newspaper which accidentally published a front-page headline reading “World is Fukt” has apologised to its readers for the error-ridden edition.

The respected Australian Financial Review, in a message from editor-in-chief Michael Stutchbury, said the mistake was due to a production and printing error.

“The Australian Financial Review apologises to Western Australian readers for the obviously unacceptable state of the newspaper’s front page on Thursday,” he said in an apology in yesterday’s newspaper.

The accidental front page quickly found fans on Twitter, who approved of the headline which read in full: “Arms buildup – Buys planes, World is Fukt”.

They also enjoyed the fact that the headline for a story about a major budget speech by Treasurer Joe Hockey was empty of meaning, reading “Three lines to come here”.

The unusual edition, which was confined to the 16 000 or so copies printed and circulated in Western Australia, is now attracting interest on eBay, with one specimen attracting a bid of AUS$81 (R800) – well above the edition’s AUS$3.50 (R34.50) cover price.

Stutchbury said an investigation was under way to determine what caused the problem.

But he said the initial assessment was that production staff in Sydney had accidentally sent an unfinished version of the front page to print sites around the country.

“This error was quickly recognised and the page was recalled from all the print sites. For whatever reason, the recalling of the unfinished page did not succeed at the Perth plant.” – AFP