Writing the Hard News Lead
(Review)
Journalism/New Media II
Summer 2009
The lead…
• Tells readers what the story is about
• Foreshadows what’s to come
• If you have no information to support your
lead, it’s the wrong lead
Picking your lead
• What is the story about?
• What’s the most important information?
• What will you remember most about the
story a year from now?
• What is the main point of the story?
• If you had to twitter the story, what would
you tweet first?
Strong leads…
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Are 25 words or less
Are written in active voice
Get right to the point
Use the only the most important w’s
Keep the audience in mind
Are objective and use attribution when
necessary
Hard News Lead
• Also called a “Summary Lead”
– Summarizes in one sentence what the story is about
– Answers some, but not all, of the five w’s
• Who, what, when, where, why
– Example:
• WASHINGTON — Tom Daschle withdrew his
name on Tuesday as President Obama’s nominee
to lead the Health and Human Services
Department, a startling decision that came only
hours after the withdrawal of another candidate for
a high White House office.
(NY Times, 2/3/09)
Choose your w’s
• Do not try to cram all the w’s into a lead
• Who, what and where make the most
appearances
• Use the w with the most importance to the
story
• When almost never comes first
– Make sure it goes where it makes sense
Delayed Identification
• Do not use names in hard news leads:
– A public figure or celebrity
– Unless the person is well-known
– Or, if you are writing a feature lead
• Instead, identify person by:
– age, occupation, location, crime
Delayed Identification Lead:
• Goucher College has suspended a visiting
professor from Rwanda after being told he
stands accused of participating in the 1994
genocide that killed some 800,000 people in the
African nation.
Leopold Munyakazi, who taught French last
semester, was removed from teaching duties in
December after school officials learned of an
indictment by a prosecutor in Rwanda.
• (The Baltimore Sun, 2/3/09)
When to use attribution in leads
• Quotes/partial quotes
• Something accusatory
– Most often used attribution in crime stories:
• Police said/experts say.
• Attribution should come last
– Most important information first
• Ex: Baltimoreans are more likely to die young than
residents of any other city, a study shows.
Impact and Updated leads
• Impact leads explain how readers will be
affected by the issue
• Updated leads update information/stories
already told
– Stress what’s happening now