The Lead
Reporting and Writing
Journalism and Media Studies Centre
The University of Hong Kong
Alex Lo
What is a lead?
• Brits call it the intro, Americans & Aussies
call it the lead.
• It gives the most important point of a story.
• It captures the essence of a news-worthy event
and takes the reader right into the heart of it.
• The direct lead is the workhorse of journalism.
What is a lead?
• Think of it as a speed date with your readers;
• Or the quickest way to attract the attention of an
impatient, cranky editor.
• You have less than 20-30 words to attract their
interest.
• Most readers never get past the headline and
the lead. That means all your efforts – reporting,
writing, interviewing, briefing your editors - are
wasted if your lead fails.
What’s so important about the lead?
• The principles for writing good news leads and
news stories are the same as those for good
writing in general.
• English is your second language.
• So take it easy on yourself: use simple words
and write in short sentences.
• But that’s not just making a virtue out of
necessity.
• Good English can be simple, clear, concise and
direct.
What’s so important about the lead?
• A news story should almost always be
simple and direct. It’s the same as when
you are writing to your boss, a client, the
taxman or a university admissions officer.
• Thinking clearly & writing concisely will
serve you well in life – unless you plan on
becoming a government bureaucrat, spin
doctor or lawyer.
What’s a lead?
• “Even cops call 911”
• 911 in North America
= 999 in HK
• Terrible movie, but
great tagline
• That line tells the
whole story.
• The lead does
something similar.
What’s so important about the lead?
• Direct frontal assault
• Wing Chung fighting
style
• Kung Fu
Choreography
• Monkey dance
What’s so important about the lead?
• “Publishers always talk of the
Frankfurt Book Fair with
mystical awe and longing. If
anthropologists were ever to
make a study of publishers,
then ‘Frankfurt’ would have to
be accorded totemic status,
connected with race history
and the birth of the universal
mind, when the first publishers
swung down from the trees.”
• Martin Amis, ‘Frankfurt’ ,
Guardian newspaper
• Unless you are Amis, stick to
the short and simple sentence.
What’s so important about the lead?
• “The real seduction of the simple
sentence is that taken by itself it is short
and it is confined to carrying one idea.
• “The real trouble with so many
compound-complex sentences is that they
have to carry too many ideas.”
• Harold Evans, Essential English for
Journalists, Editors and Writers
What’s so important about the lead?
• The legendary crusading editor of the
Sunday Times, Evans led a team of
investigative reporters who exposed the
Thalidomide scandal in the UK.
• Also husband of Tina Brown, one-time
editor of Vanity Fair, the New Yorker and
currently of Newsweek
How to write a lead
A lead must be simple, direct, concise;
secondarily, it should be dramatic and vivid.
• A good lead tells your reader what the rest of
the story is about.
• It offers the reader a roadmap. Unlike mystery
or crime novelists, journalists disclose the key
to the story from the very beginning.
How to write a lead
•
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
•
•
Typically, but not always, the direct lead contains four
essentials: uniqueness, sourcing, when and where.
It says something specific and interesting, i.e., news-worthy.
It says when the event or action happened.
It gives the source (without necessarily identifying it in full).
It gives the place of the action.
Keep it short: 20-25 words, or less,
All these have to be done as concisely as possible.
In most cases, use a direct structure: S-V-O. Subject, verb
and object. (Wong [subject] hit [verb] the man [object].)
How to write a lead
• Example: British riots
• There were riots in several British cities last
night in which several shops were burned.
• Rioters burned shops in several British cities last
night.
• “There was” is almost always avoidable.
How to write a lead
• There was a rush to buy pre-sales flats at two
developments yesterday despite recent drops in
the stock market and rising oil prices.
• The pre-sales action for flats at two
developments was feverish yesterday despite
the slumping stock market and rising oil prices.
• Stronger, quicker.
How to write a lead
• There should be more frequent checks on civil
service housing benefits to prevent the
possibility of abuse, a legislator-elect
recommended yesterday.
• “There should”?
• More frequent auditing of civil service housing
benefits yesterday will prevent abuse, a
legislator-elect said yesterday.
• Simple, direct, concise.
How to write a lead
• It was announced yesterday that CLP
Power would raise electricity charges by
more than five per cent next year.
• What’s wrong?
How to write a lead
• Repeat: Use a direct structure: S-V-O. Subject,
verb and object.
• Another example: “US special forces team
lost over South China Sea”
How to write a lead
• The Pentagon reports
a navy helicopter
carrying a team of
special forces
operatives was lost
over the South China
Sea last night. There
were no survivors.
• A US navy helicopter
carrying a term of
special forces
operatives plunged
into the South China
Sea last night, killing
everyone onboard,
the Pentagon says.
How to write a lead
• “Osama bin Laden
mastermind of the 11
September 2001 attacks
and the world's most
wanted man, has been
killed in a US operation in
north-western Pakistan,
Barack Obama has
announced.”
• May 2, Guardian
• Why the indirect O-V-S
structure?
• “An elite crew of
American forces killed
Osama bin Laden during
a daring raid on Monday
in his compound north of
Islamabad, the Pakistani
capital.”
• May 2, Denver Post
• This follows the usual SV-O direct sentence.
How to write a lead
• Repeat: Use a direct structure: S-V-O. Subject, verb
and object.
• Avoid long subsidiary clauses or titles.
• Example: Eight robbers who were armed with
AK-47 submachine guns raided the HSBC
headquarters in Central yesterday and walked
off with HK$70 million worth of god bars after
posing as security guards and subduing bank
executives while threatening to kill them.
How to write a lead
Eight robbers raided the
HSBC headquarters
in Central yesterday.
Eight robbers raided the HSBC
headquarters in Central
yesterday and walked off with
HK$70 million worth of gold
bars.
The men posed as security
guards and subdued bank
executives while threatening to
kill them.
How to write a lead
Use strong, dramatic language -- specific
nouns, strong and/or colorful verbs.
How to write a lead
• A late-morning fire in
the upper floors of an
18-story luxury housing
estate in Pokfulam
killed three people
yesterday.
• A fire roared like a
“blowtorch” through the
upper floors of a
Pokfulam luxury
housing estate yesterday,
killing three people.
How to write a lead
• if their leads run beyond 20 to 25 words. To
find places to CUT, begin with:
• Unnecessary attribution.
• Banish jargon and legalese.
• Compound sentences joined by but and and.
• Exact dates and times unless essential.
• Long titles. (Professor of bio-analytical
chemistry at the Hong Kong University of
Science and Technology)
How to write a lead
• Keep it shot:
• “Hong Kong University of Science and
Technology professor of bio-analytical
chemistry Reinhard Renneberg yesterday
announced the complete sequencing of
the genome of a species of Thai rice.”
• “Hong Kong scientists have sequenced
the complete genome of the popular Thai
rice.”
How to write a lead
• Short and simple, NOT:
• The former director of public prosecutions,
Grenville Cross, yesterday criticized the
secretary for justice, Wong Yan-lung, for
calling on the public to keep quiet ahead of
a forthcoming domestic helper's right of
abode case.
How to write a lead
• “The former director of public prosecutions
yesterday rounded on the secretary for justice
for calling on the public to keep quiet ahead of a
forthcoming domestic helper's right of abode
case.
• “Grenville Cross (pictured) said the court was
perfectly capable of making impartial decisions
despite the heated public debate. He also
blamed justice chief Wong Yan-lung for trying to
influence the court by making a bid to present
late evidence, withdrawn at the last minute this
week.” SCMP, Chris Ip, Aug 19, 2011
How to write a lead
• Four men convicted of murdering a German
family of four in a frenzied knife attack were
executed in China yesterday despite pleas for
clemency from the victims’ relatives.
• The what was different. Concrete, dramatic,
specific language. Time. S-V-O. structure.
How to write a lead
• A LaSalle College physics teacher and a lab
technician tipped off students about questions
to appear in an A-level exam this year, a court
heard yesterday.
• The who was important. So was attribution. SV-O. structure.
How to write a lead
• Jewelry tycoon Tse Sui-luen’s rags-to-riches
story entered its darkest chapter yesterday
when a High Court judge declared the selfmade company chairman bankrupt.
• Who was important. Place was important.
Imagery (a bit of a cliché, but sometimes it can
work). Time element. S-V-O. structure.
How to write a lead
• The sexual revolution has bypassed Hong
Kong, according to a survey showing many
men are still looking for passive, good-looking
women and women want a man with a big
bank balance.
• Good approach, but what about this:
How to write a lead
• Men want passive beauties for mates while
women want guys with deep pockets, a new
survey says.
How to write a lead
• Director of Home Affairs Shelley Lee Laikuen has blamed pressure from the KowloonCanton Railway Corporation for violent scenes
yesterday morning after police seized control
of an industrial building in Tsuen Wan.
• Long; unclear; heavy use of official titles and
names slows the pace.
How to write a lead
• The Home Affairs director blamed KowloonCanton railway officials for provoking
property owners to violence yesterday when
police seized a building slated for demolition
in Tsuen Wan.
• Clarity -- property owners, demolition. Lean at
outset. And 27 words versus 33.
How to write a lead
• The Airport Authority has appointed a
businessman with no airport management
experience as its next chief executive officer.
He will replace Bill Lam Chung-lun, who was
seconded from the Government by Chief
Secretary for Administration Anson Chan Fang
On-Sang in January 1998.
How to write a lead
• The Airport Authority’s acting chief executive
was axed yesterday to make way for new
blood after he failed to win an internal struggle
to retain his position.
Why can’t reporters write leads!?
• If it’s so simple & straightforward, why do
reporters keep violating these golden rules and
producing long and impossibly complicated
sentences in their copies?
• Well, try summarizing in one short snappy
sentence after a day covering fierce fighting
between rebels and forces loyal to Gaddafi;
working through 140 pages of the HK
government’s plan to scrap by-elections; or a 2hour HSBC annual shareholders’ conference.
The Lead
• Summary: The lead combines the most
important and interesting elements from
the event you are reporting in the fewest,
simplest words possible.