In a professional sense, I’ve used the phrase, “stop the presses.” It was probably my worst day as a journalist.

As a youngster, the thought of yelling, “stop the presses” seemed like a cool thing. It certainly looked neat in the movies. One of my favorite films with a journalism theme, “The Paper,” has a thrilling scene with the main character, played by Michael Keaton, yelling the phrase near the end.

It was nowhere near as thrilling for me to yell that phrase in real life.

My self-inflicted tragic, “stop the presses” moment occurred while I was serving as editor of The Daily Herald in Roanoke Rapids, N.C., sometime in the summer of 2013.

A story about a crime suspect arrest came to light right before we went to press, and our news team was able to get the details into the edition; however, I made the cardinal mistake of placing the story on the page and not having someone proof read the finished product before sending it to print.

As it happened in this case, the picture of the suspect ran over the last name of someone else. That someone else just happened to be the name of the police chief.

One of our on-point mailroom employees saw the mistake on a printed copy and brought it to my attention, which sent me running into the pressroom yelling, you guessed it, “stop the presses.”

We were more than 50 percent through that day’s run and certain completed editions were already stuffed with their extra advertising and out the door on their way for delivery to homes and businesses.

It didn’t matter. We started the whole run over again and called back as many of the flawed copies as possible. About 20 to 25 percent of the editions were unrecoverable and were delivered with the incorrect information.

After rerouting our production plan and informing the boss (our newspaper’s publisher) of my mistake, my first call was to the police chief.

Maybe he could hear the sorrow in my voice, maybe he is just an altogether decent human being (probably both) but that man cut me more slack than I deserved on that day and never held it against the newspaper going forward.

It was an honest mistake, but it was one made without anything close to an acceptable excuse.

This memory has been on mind recently because of a similar mistake L’OBSERVATEUR made one week ago, when we promised and promoted RIVER PARISHES MAGAZINE’s inclusion in the Dec. 31 edition.

Even though we claimed on the front page it would be there, it was not.

The combination of a skeleton holiday press crew, one unplanned sick employee and a communication breakdown in LaPlace led to the magazines not appearing Dec. 31.

Those aren’t excuses, but that is why it happened. That being said, not inserting the magazines and not realizing the mistake until it was too late should never have occurred.

New protocols have been put in place to correct such a problem should it ever occur again, and, thankfully, RIVER PARISHES MAGAZINE was inserted in the Wednesday/Jan. 4 newspaper.

Extra copies are available at L’OBSERVATEUR’s office in LaPlace for those interested in additional editions or who missed our first run.

One of the great things about working in community journalism is sharing the work we’re passionate about with so many friends and neighbors. Whether it is joyous success or heartfelt tragedy, we serve as the ultimate historical marker and community yearbook.

When we succeed, it’s something the whole community benefits from. When we fail — like not including a promised magazine in the newspaper — it’s usually on a grand scale and easy to mock.

Our friends and business partners in St. John the Baptist Parish and the greater River Region deserved better than what L’OBSERVATEUR delivered Dec. 31.

For that, I am sorry. We will do better.

Stephen Hemelt is publisher and editor of L’OBSERVATEUR. He can be reached at 985-652-9545  or stephen.hemelt@lobservateur.com.