A message may appear to have an unimportant subject line, but may have an important message within. I've deleted these types of messages before. Most newspapers have some types of miscommunication problems including top-notch papers like the San Jose Mercury News. David Teppes, an assistant managing editor for the paper, says one way to get beyond this, is to talk to people on other desks rather than use the electronic messaging system. You can't do much more, because our reliance on technology is instrumental to getting our jobs done each day.
Credibility is essential to a newspaper's reputation, and mistakes tarnish that credibility.
One of the things about e-mail that propels it is that it is immediate without being hasty. One of the drawbacks of using voice-mail is that is not really editable. When I call someone and get an answering machine, or equivalent, the message that I can leave is never as informative as a conversation would be. Inevitable, some nugget is forgotten. It's not the answer for everything, but it is one of the more useful office procedures that I've experience in my working life.