Newspaper editor apologises for ‘World is Fukt’ headline and other errors on the front page of its long-weekend edition

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

The Australian Financial Review editor-in-chief, Michael Stutchbury, has apologised to Western Australian readers of the national paper for a set of front-page headlines which read in part: “World is Fukt”.



The headline ran in error in the WA edition of the special Anzac Day weekend edition of the AFR. The edition is a four-day special on sale for the Anzac Day long weekend.

To make matters worse, “Arms Buildup/Buys Planes/World is Fukt” wasn’t the only eyebrow-raising mistake on the front page. It joined “Japan headline”; “Gallipolli” (sic); “Joe Hockey headline tk here”; as well as unexplained empty space.

Stutchbury told Mumbrella that the embarrassing mistakes were the result of “a simple error that got through normal quality control”. He apologised to WA readers for the “obviously unacceptable state of the front page of their paper this morning”.

Stutchbury explained that the “initial assessment” of the error was that production staff in Sydney “pressed a wrong button” which sent a draft version of the front page to print sites around the country. The page was recalled successfully from all sites – except from the Perth plant.

Meanwhile, in a separate production problem, barcodes were left off some east coast editions of the paper, making it difficult for newsagents to charge for them. Stutchbury said, “I am told that this is confined to the Sydney print site” and he expected the impact on revenue would be “relatively small”.

A year ago, the AFR outsourced its subediting to a Fairfax subsidiary in New Zealand. More than 20 full-time and casual subeditors lost their jobs in Sydney.