A glitch on page A22

Some readers in the Los Angeles Times' East zone, which includes the San Gabriel Valley and Riverside, were startled to see "dummy" headlines in the National Briefing column on Page A22.

About 55,000 papers were printed before the error was discovered.

Readers feared that all the copy editors had been laid off, or even "massacred," as one put it.

But according to Operations Editor Dave Rickley, Page A22 for the East zone was not touched -- or seen -- by the newsroom.

The page was sent by editors to the pressroom with headlines written and in place.

The only thing that was supposed to change on the page was advertising. However, Rickley said, a technical problem apparently replaced the edited text with an earlier, incomplete version.

The pressroom caught the error early in the press run and notified editors. That quick work allowed the newsroom to send a new, correct version of the page, which limited the damage.