Same Headline, Different Story

I picked up today's copy of the Diamondback feeling anxious. My story was on the front page and I was hoping the copy editors had been merciful with their digital scissors.

One look past the jump told me they hadn't. Although the lede and nut graf on page 1 were unchanged, there was no way the rest of my 600-plus word story was in those two half columns on page 2.

A quick scan of the text assured my fears. It seemed like half my story was missing. Interesting anecdotes, quirky quotes and fun facts had been deleted into oblivion. I wasn't mad; after all, space is space. But I'd spent hours on Friday crafting sentences and weaving paragraphs together.

The story was on Bob Moyer, an alumnus who now works for Pixar. (That famous alum I mentioned in Friday's post was Muppeteer Jim Henson, who, like Moyer, created his own major here). While drafting an e-mail to Moyer with the link to the story, I considered sending my original draft too.

I glanced at the online version of the story and saw the words rust and chrome. That wasn't in the newspaper, I thought.

I read closer and compared the two versions. To my surprise, the online link was my original draft.

Yes! I thought. Then I paused. The headlines were identical. But the stories technically weren't, right?

Obviously, I'm excited that the paper posted my original work. But on some level it seems a little misleading to me to have two different articles under the same headline. Has anyone seen any other papers do this?