Back in the early 2000s I wrote the text for a Taiwanese website that was trying to reach into the American market. While I have learned a lot about grammar these past several years (thank you proofer Anne McNeill), I am confident that the content I wrote then was pretty clean. It was succinct and I know the words were spelled correctly.

Last week I received an email from a company that was launching its redone website. It was very excited about the launch and encouraged visitors, like me, to take a look. Right away I noticed a total misspelling. The sentence had to do with learning the basic tenants behind their product.

Huh? Tenants. Like in people who rent? I’m sure they meant tenets as in “any opinion, principle doctrine, dogma, etc., especially one held as true by members of a profession, group, or movement,” according to dictionary.com.

Those kinds of errors drive me nuts. I then circled back to what we do here at CV Weekly.

I understand that not everything in every paper is spelled correctly. I accept those mistakes, rare as they are. And sometimes we get things mixed up. I try to own up to those mistakes as I don’t want readers to think that I don’t care. Because I do.

I often state one of the key strengths of the paper is the value of correcting an error. For example, let’s say something is reported incorrectly in one week’s paper, which is read by an estimated 28,000 people. The following week a correction is printed. An estimated 28,000 people will read it. Not so on social media or a website. After those are read once, no one returns to see if there are any corrections. And let’s face it: just about anyone can write anything on social media.

I pay writers and photographers to cover events and news that is happening in and affects our community. That doesn’t necessarily happen online.

Mary O’Keefe and I weekly review the events going on in our community and those things happening outside our community that affect it.

The paper also includes comments from and bills written by local politicians. It’s not because we particularly think these are great bills that we want to promote but instead we think it’s our responsibility to share what our elected officials are doing.

I have to laugh when I receive a letter (usually unsigned) by a reader who criticizes the CV Weekly for having a politician write for the paper. It is assumed by some that I, as publisher, endorse the politician. That is not necessarily the case. I try to give a voice to our representatives so, again, our readers (and voters) know what they’re up to.

There are many facets to running this local newspaper and I’m grateful knowing that many turn to the CVW for reliable, trustworthy information. I take that responsibility seriously and hope it’s reflected in the final product.