Leads and Story Basics
Week 1
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Topics for Today
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What’s news
Discuss broadcast news topics
Basic story structure
Leads
Leads
More leads
Return to story structure
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The inverted pyramid
• Reports of its death have been greatly
exaggerated.
• Most important to least important
– Newspaper readers spend 15 to 25
minutes per day reading the paper
– Online subscribers spend even less
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The inverted pyramid
• Readers can find the key information
first
• Editors can trim less important
information if necessary
• Began in the Civil War (or before)?
• Forces writers to rank the importance of
the information (Key to good leads too)
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The inverted pyramid
• Lead comes first
• Supporting paragraphs in descending
order of importance
– Multiple editions of a newspaper or
newscast with story running different
lengths
• Negatives: It doesn’t encourage people
to read the entire story
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Leads
• Clear, simple statement
• First paragraph -- occasionally two
paragraphs
• Key news values
– “So what?” or “Who cares?”
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Leads - basic questions
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Who
What
When
Where
Why
How
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Lead basics
• Ask these questions
• A few other things as appropriate
• Word limit?
– 25 is good
– Depends on the story
– May be two sentences, if necessary
• Remember, what do you want to know?
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Leads
• Telling someone a story when they’re
trying to catch a bus
• Just the facts . . . .
• Avoid editorializing
– Keep your opinions out
• Double check spelling, address, key
facts
• Avoid too many numbers in the lead
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A fire in Bryan caused $45,000 in
damages to a two-bedroom home in the
2300 block of 28th Street. Fire officials
said the fire was started by a lighted
cigarette on a sofa. Firefighters arrived
at the house at 3:30 a.m. to find it on
fire. They had the blaze under control in
five minutes. The homeowner, Kathy
Mahoney, was awakened by the smoke
and flames. She suffered minor burns
on her hands and feet.
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Alternate leads
• Which item is most important?
• What if:
– Mahoney is the mayor of Bryan?
– Mahoney is a convicted arsonist?
• Have there been may fires caused by
smoking this year?
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Types of leads
• “You” lead
– Tells readers why they should care
• Immediate-identification lead
– Who is one of the most important
facts
• Delayed-identification leads
– Who is one of the least important facts
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Types of leads
• Summary lead
– Sums up what happened
– Most common lead type
• Multiple-element lead
– Laundry list of topics
– Use sparingly
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Novelty Leads
• Some stories are best written with an
unusual lead
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A Santa Ana woman was charged with
attempted murder yesterday. She was being
held in the Orange County jail after being
unable to post $250,000 bond. Police said the
woman, June Carter, 71, doused her
husband, who was confined to a wheelchair
and had cancer, with rubbing alcohol and set
him on fire. Police said she was angry
because he ate her chocolate Easter bunny.
She called paramedics six hours after the
attack on her husband. Paul Carter, 62, was
taken to the University of California Irvine
Burn center with third-degree burns, police
said.
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Story organization
• A good lead makes the rest of the story
easy to write
• Following the lead, introduce any
additional important information
• Explain the “so what” if possible
• Elaborate on the information in the lead
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Story structure
• Develop the ideas in the same order
they are introduced
• Generally, use one paragraph per idea
• [Yes, you can have one-sentence
paragraphs]
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Multiple-element stories
• A multi-element lead frequently means a
multiple-element story
• Board meetings, council meetings
• Options
– More than one story
– A summary box (nice graphic element)
• Multi-element story -- same format as
regular story.
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