Accuracy is a pretty serious matter for newspaper journalists.

Still, there’s nothing like a well-turned phrase or two to bring a different perspective on the topic.

First, consider legendary lawman Wyatt Earp’s take on the general theme of accuracy: “Fast is fine, but accuracy is everything.”

Earp’s view is particularly relevant for a craft that places a premium on both speed on deadline and accurate details.

Second, there’s esteemed statesman Adlai Stevenson, who said: “Accuracy is to a newspaper what virtue is to a lady, but a newspaper can always print a retraction.”

All famous wit aside, this column is my annual report to our readers on The Spokesman-Review’s accuracy performance. I’m happy to report that for the second consecutive year we showed a significant decline in the number of errors that resulted in published corrections. We published 382 corrections in Accuracy Watch during 2008, an 18 percent decline from 2007. In 2007, we showed a 15 percent decline from the prior year, so it’s nice to be able to report a positive trend.

While our accuracy rate is improving, I’ll be the first to say that there’s still plenty of room for improvement. A rate of slightly more than one correction per day in a year’s time is not something we should or will settle for in our newsroom.

Accuracy is a cornerstone of any newspaper’s credibility. It’s our obligation to get the facts right each and every time, but we are a human endeavor and we do make mistakes. Our accuracy report focuses on what some call “hard facts,” such as names, addresses, times, dates, numbers and spelling. The report in no way measures meaning, a much more expansive and often subjective topic.

While it’s tempting to compare our newspaper’s accuracy record with that of other newspapers, it wouldn’t be an apples to apples measurement. Staff size, the number of editions, and the number of pages published on a given day can vary widely from paper to paper. However, it is fair to say that accuracy is an industrywide concern and many newsrooms track the rate of errors in similar fashion.

Two categories stand out in the 2008 statistics for our newspaper. The highest number of errors in one category is 82, for identifications, titles or relationships. The second highest number of errors per category is the misspelling of names, for which we had 51 errors last year.

Our effort to reduce errors is not simply an exercise in keeping score. Staff members are required to submit a form after they’ve committed an error, explaining how the mistake happened and how it could have been avoided. The process is intended to help us learn how to avoid making similar mistakes in the future.

Our goal each year is to reduce honest mistakes, carelessness and misunderstandings. We take the issue of our credibility very seriously, and it pains us when we have to admit we got something wrong.

We welcome your comments, and we urge you to contact us, if you think we have made an error of fact, at (509) 459-5430.