Jobs, jobbed
August 29, 2008 by cynthia
I really had to chuckle over this one: Bloomberg accidentally published their Steven Jobs obituary, much to the consternation of the high tech world (and probably Mr. Jobs).
Most people don’t realize this, but large publications usually keep fill-in-the-blank obituaries on file for celebrities and assign the newest reporter-in-training the job of keeping them up to date. That way, if someone famous dies, it’s relatively easy to add a few lines about where/how/why and quickly get out an obit.
A friend had the update job for awhile, and said she was given a list of “at risk” celebrities, i.e., anyone past 60, sick or doing dangerous things, for frequent updates. I’d imagine that the recent news about Jobs’ bout of pancreatic cancer and weight loss dumped him onto the “at risk” list and somebody hit the publish button by mistake.
Ooops.
Knew that – obits in the fridge for when they’re needed – but given your iPhone issues of late, this is really funny
=^,^=
This is eerily like a postscript to Daniel Lyons’ 2007 book, “oPtion$: the secret life of Steve Jobs.” Wonderful reading for ex-tech journalists!