page one

[meliss]

Is it equivalent to the "first page"? And "page 2" = "second page"? Here is the context:

"Some papers ... run all corrections on page one. At the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the correction goes as close as it can to where the original mistake was published and is indexed on page 2."

Thank you.

[BobK]

Is it equivalent to the "first page"? And "page 2" = "second page"? Here is the context:
"Some papers ... run all corrections on page one. At the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the correction goes as close as it can to where the original mistake was published and is indexed on page 2."
Thank you.

I think, in the context of a newspaper, Page One is the same as what's normally called 'the front page', and Page Two is the first left-hand page.

Sometimes, - in books - Page One is the same as the first page. Many books though start with several pages (often numbered in Roman numerals) of 'prelims', and then the text itself starts (sometimes with an appropriate offset [so starting Arabic numerals at, say, '7'] and sometimes without [starting at "1" again - although usually the number "i" or "1" doesn't appear anyway].

b

[meliss]

Don't you think in a newspaper "page one" could be the "first page" after the front page?

[BobK]

No. This is partly because a training in the publishing industry has left me with a strong dislike of even numbers on right-hand pages . But that's just a personal thing.

b

[meliss]

I think you are right about the even numbers on right-hand pages. But why not just call them "first page", "second page" and so on?

[BobK]

I think if you said 'first page' you'd be understood to mean the front page - although you could say 'the first page after the front page'. There is an idiom used to refer just to this: 'the first inside page'. I think it would sound strange to use a higher ordinal though; I've never heard 'the fourth inside page'. You can use the plural however, and then specify an ordinal: 'I know I saw it on one of the inside pages - the fourth, I think'.

b

[meliss]

Thank you, Sir.