How to Write a News Article
News articles report on current events that are relevant to the readership of a publication. These current events might take place locally, nationally, or internationally.
News writing is a skill that’s used worldwide, but this writing format—with its unique rules and structure—differs from other forms of writing . Understanding how to write a news story correctly can ensure you’re performing your journalistic duty to your audience.
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What is a news article?
A news article is a writing format that provides concise and factual information to a reader. News stories typically report on current affairs that are noteworthy—including legislation, announcements, education, discoveries or research, election results, public health, sports, and the arts.
Unlike blog and opinion posts, a strong news article doesn’t include personal opinion, speculation, or bias. Additionally, the diction and syntax should be accessible to any reader, even if they’re not deeply familiar with the topic. News stories, therefore, don’t contain jargon that you might find in a research paper or essay.
What are the rules for writing a news article?
Whether you’re learning how to write a short news story for a school assignment or want to showcase a variety of clips in your writing portfolio , the rules of news writing hold true.
There are three types of news articles:
- Local: reports on current events of a specific area or community. For example, “College Football Team Welcomes Legendary NFL Coach” or “School District Announces New Grading Policy.”
- National: reports on current affairs within a particular country. For example, “NASA’s James Webb Telescope Captures Surreal Images of the Cosmos.”
- International: reports on social issues or current affairs of one or more countries abroad. For example, “UK’s Record Heat Wave Expected to Continue Next Week.”
Regardless of the type of news article you’re writing, it should always include the facts of the story, a catchy but informative headline, a summary of events in paragraph form, and interview quotes from expert sources or of public sentiment about the event. News stories are typically written from a third-person point of view while avoiding opinion, speculation, or an informal tone.
How is a news article structured?
While many news stories are concise and straightforward, long-form or deeply investigated pieces may comprise thousands of words. On the shorter side, news articles can be about 500 words.
When it comes to how to structure a news article, use an inverted pyramid. Organizing your content this way allows you to thoughtfully structure paragraphs :
- Begin with the most important and timely information
- Follow those facts with supporting details
- Conclude with some less important—but relevant—details, interview quotes, and a summary
The first paragraph of a news article should begin with a topic sentence that concisely describes the main point of the story. Placing this sentence at the beginning of a news article hooks the reader immediately so the lede isn’t buried.
At a traditional newspaper, this practice is described as “writing above the fold,” which alludes to the biggest, most pressing news being visible at the top of a folded newspaper.
How to write a news article
There are a handful of steps to practice when writing a news story. Here’s how to approach it.
1 Gathering information
Source the five Ws about your news topic: who, what, where, when, and why. Lock down a keen understanding of the timeline of events so you can correctly summarize the incident or news to your reader. The key is to position yourself as a credible and reliable source of information by doing your due diligence as a fact gatherer.
2 Interviewing subjects
Consider who you want to interview for the new article. For example, you might choose to interview primary sources , such as a person who is directly involved in the story.
Alternatively, secondary sources might offer your readers insight from people close to or affected by the topic who have unique perspectives. This might be an expert who can offer technical commentary or analysis, or an everyday person who can share an anecdote about how the topic affected them.
When interviewing sources, always disclose that you’re a reporter and the topic that you’re writing on.
3 Outlining
Draft an outline for your news article, keeping the inverted-pyramid structure in mind. Consider your potential readership and publication to ensure that your writing meets the audience’s expectations in terms of complexity.
For example, if this news article is for a general news publication, your readership might include a wider audience compared to a news article for a specialized publication or community.
Brainstorm a snappy headline that concisely informs readers of the news topic while seizing their interest. Gather the most important points from your research and pool them into their respective pyramid “buckets.” These buckets should be based on their order of importance.
4 Writing
Get to writing! The paragraphs in a news article should be short, to the point, and written in a formal tone. Make sure that any statements or opinions are attributed to a credible source that you’ve vetted.
5 Revising
Reread your first draft aloud. In addition to looking for obvious typos or grammar mistakes , listen for awkward transitions and jarring tense or perspective shifts. Also, consider whether your first draft successfully conveys the purpose of your news story.
Rework your writing as needed and repeat this step. Don’t forget to proofread your work.
6 Fact-checking
Strong news stories are built on facts. If any statement or information is shaky or unsupported, the entire work is compromised. Before publishing a news article, double-check that all the information you’ve gathered from the beginning is accurate, and validate the information that your interview sources provided, too.
How to write a news article FAQs
What is a news article .
A news article informs readers within a community of current events that are relevant to them. It typically revolves around a topic of interest within a publication’s readership, whether the information is about local, national, or international events.
News articles are structured like an inverted pyramid. The most important or crucial information is always presented to the reader up front, followed by additional story details. A news article concludes with less important supporting information or a summation of the reporting.
The general rules for writing a news article involve accuracy and integrity. Report on the details of a story in a factual, unbiased, and straightforward way. When writing a news article, do not editorialize or sensationalize the information, and keep your content free of your opinion.
Jerz's Literacy Weblog (est. 1999)
Journalism: writing the hard news story.
Jerz > Writing > Journalism
Hard news articles are written so the the reader can stop reading at any time, and still come away with the whole story. This is very different from an essay, which presumes that the audience will stick around to the end, and can therefore build to a finish.
There is no need to put a “conclusion” on a news story. Each individual reader will “end” the story whenever he or she gets bored. A particularly interested reader will keep reading to the end.
14 Dec 1999; by Lori Kurtzman, UWEC Junior 20 Apr 2003 — updated by Jerz 30 May 2012 — minor updates by Jerz
Sample Hard News Story
Wild pig causes two-hour traffic delay on I-94
By JOE STUDENT Staff Writer
St. Paul, Jan. 24 — A 15-minute operation involving a forklift, 20 firefighters, seven police officers and one scared pig ended a two-hour traffic delay on Interstate 94 Sunday morning.
The wild pig, whom the fireman affectionately nicknamed “Tailgate,” apparently wandered onto 1-94 around 8 a.m. and fell asleep in the middle of the two-lane freeway.
St. Paul resident Geoffrey Saint was the first to come upon the 200-pound animal.”He practically took up the whole road,” Saint said. “I barely slammed on my brakes in time.”
Saint said the cars behind him followed suit, each stopping short after reaching speeds of up to 70 mph.
Saint stayed in his car and phoned area police, who responded at 8:20 a.m.
Lieutenant Terry Frank was the first officer on the scene.
“I couldn’t believe my eyes,” Frank said. “Here was this huge, sloppy pig, just napping in the middle of the road, oblivious to what was going on around him.”
Frank said she attempted to rouse the pig by poking him with a stick.
“He just kept on snoring,” she said.
By 9 a.m., three fire trucks and four patrol cars had responded to the “sleeping pig” call.
“We just sat there and wondered what in the world we could do,” Frank said.
The Headline : Convey the general message in as many words as will fit (usually quite a small space). A headline should be informational, and can be clever, as long as the cleverness does not interfere with the information or earn groans from readers.
See prize-winning newspaper headlines
The Lead : The lead, or the first sentence of the story, is arguably the most important part of the article. Based on the content of that first sentence, a reader will either look deeper into the story, or move on to the next one.
Therefore, how you craft your lead is very important. There are some basic rules one can follow:
- The who, what, when, where, how, why lead.
- Basically, just like it sounds. This lead tries to answer the 5 w’s and one h in one sentence. “A 15-minute operation involving a forklift, 20 firefighters, seven police officers and one scared pig ended a two-hour traffic delay on Interstate 94 Sunday morning.” (The lead usually doesn’t need to specify the exact time.)
Experimental leads . If you answer the “5 w’s and one h” on the second or third sentences, you can be more creative with the first. The results can flounder and die, or have a great impact. Some examples for the pig story:
- Tailgate the pig lay snoring in the middle of Interstate 94, oblivious to the fire trucks and squad cars that had gathered around him.
- Geoffrey Saint never could have imagined what he'd meet in the middle of Interstate 94 during his drive to church Sunday morning.
Direct Quotes: Quotes breathe life into a story, but can be abused. Don’t quote material that isn’t quoteworthy. For instance, if Frank had said, “Officers arrived on the scene at about 9:00 a.m.,” you wouldn’t quote that.
If she had said, “That huge pig just sat there with tears running down his face and I thought my heart would burst,” well, that’s far more quoteworthy.
Paraphrased Quotes:
When a source’s words convey dry facts, or if the source’s exact words don’t fit the sentence you want to write, consider paraphrase.
Officers arrived on the scene around 9:00 a.m., Frank said.
You are still attributing the source properly, but no quotes are needed.
Additional Information:
News Story vs. English Essay
Your English instructor carefully reads your essay to evaluate the depth of your knowledge, the breadth of your vocabulary, and the loftiness of your ideas. Joe Sixpack glances quickly at your news story to learn who won the game, or when Route 30 will reopen, or what happened at the school board meeting last night. What counts as “good writing” depends on what the reader values.
Quotations: Using Them Effectively in Journalism
Use direct quotations to record the opinions, emotions, and unique expressions of your sources. Let the direct words of your sources do as much work as possible, keeping yourself out of the story, and keeping transitions and explanations to a minimum. Use a phrase like “When asked about…” only when omitting it will create a false impression.
News Writing Links
- Writing the Lead
- Newswriting Checklist
And of course, the best way to write well is to read:
- The New York Times
- The Minneapolis Star Tribune
14 Dec 1999; by Lori Kurtzman, UWEC Junior 20 Apr 2003 — updated by Jerz 30 May 2012 — minor updates by Jerz 02 Feb 2018 — adding links; minor tweaks by Jerz
15 thoughts on “ Journalism: Writing the Hard News Story ”
Mike Dabo, I think you are confused.
Lori Kurtzman submitted the first version of this article, with the “Tailgate the pig” example, for an assignment at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire in 1999. (She’s credited in two places on this page.)
Here’s a link to how this document looked in 2003, when I changed schools and reposted my instructional web pages here. As you can see, I’ve credited her at the top and bottom of the page.
https://web.archive.org/web/20030723023134/https://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/journalism/news.htm
Here’s what the page looked like in early 2001, on my old site. https://web.archive.org/web/20010223133652/http://www.uwec.edu/academic/curric/jerzdg/orr/handouts/journalism.htm
Both links are courtesy of the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.
Did you know that this article was copied—word for word—from someone else’s article—and with attribution.
That’s called plagiarism.
Here’s the original article, in a slide presentation, published on 2 July 2006, more than a year before Lori Kurtzman reproduced it here under her own name: https://fr.slideshare.net/guest0ec37d/writing-hard-news
This is wrong.
According to this she wrote it in 1999.
please i need a sample of a news story, the elements of news being identified and also to outline the errors in th lead
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The devices which stop a vehicle are spelled “brakes,” while momentary interruptions would be spelled “breaks.” You used the latter spelling where you should have used the former.
Thanks for catching the error.
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this is a fantastic
Help me with a story I was assaulted and battered by three police officers during my spinal fusion, now on the streets 4 years later in chronic pain waiting for a federal court case to finally come about. Uneducated, untrained police officers have destroyed my life, but because they don’t know what to do in a medical situation, they have one answer. Rough him up and slam him around. The USA is full of it, the town Boulder,Co wants to keep it quiet. Reality is time for Change Time to notify our citizens “protect and serve” Is a Lie
Benson, I’d suggest that you bring your concern to a the news office of your local newspaper. Here’s a webpage that lists Colorado newspapers — there are four listings for Boulder. http://www.usnpl.com/conews.php
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from training.npr.org: https://training.npr.org/2016/10/12/leads-are-hard-heres-how-to-write-a-good-one/
- Style Guide
A good lead is everything — here's how to write one
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(Deborah Lee/NPR)
I can’t think of a better way to start a post about leads than with this:
“The most important sentence in any article is the first one. If it doesn’t induce the reader to proceed to the second sentence, your article is dead.” — William Zinsser, On Writing Well
No one wants a dead article! A story that goes unread is pointless. The lead is the introduction — the first sentences — that should pique your readers’ interest and curiosity. And it shouldn’t be the same as your radio intro, which t ells listeners what the story is about and why they should care. In a written story, that’s the function of the “nut graph” (which will be the subject of a future post) — not the lead.
The journalism lead’s main job (I’m personally fond of the nostalgic spelling , “lede,” that derives from the bygone days of typesetting when newspaper folks needed to differentiate the lead of a story from the lead of hot type) is to make the reader want to stay and spend some precious time with whatever you’ve written. It sets the tone and pace and direction for everything that follows. It is the puzzle piece on which the rest of the story depends. To that end, please write your lead first — don’t undermine it by going back and thinking of one to slap on after you’ve finished writing the rest of the story.
Coming up with a good lead is hard. Even the most experienced and distinguished writers know this. No less a writer than John McPhee has called it “ the hardest part of a story to write.” But in return for all your effort, a good lead will do a lot of work for you — most importantly, it will make your readers eager to stay awhile.
There are many different ways to start a story. Some examples of the most common leads are highlighted below. Sometimes they overlap. (Note: These are not terms of art.)
Straight news lead
Just the facts, please, and even better if interesting details and context are packed in. This kind of lead works well for hard news and breaking news.
Some examples:
“After mass street protests in Poland, legislators with the country’s ruling party have abruptly reversed their positions and voted against a proposal to completely ban abortion.” (By NPR’s Camila Domonoske )
“The European Parliament voted Tuesday to ratify the landmark Paris climate accord, paving the way for the international plan to curb greenhouse gas emissions to become binding as soon as the end of this week.” (By NPR’s Rebecca Hersher )
“The United States announced it is suspending efforts to revive a cease-fire in Syria, blaming Russia’s support for a new round of airstrikes in the city of Aleppo.” (By NPR’s Richard Gonzales )
All three leads sum up the news in a straightforward, clear way — in a single sentence. They also hint at the broader context in which the news occurred.
Anecdotal lead
This type of lead uses an anecdote to illustrate what the story is about.
Here’s a powerful anecdotal lead to a story about Brazil’s murder rate and gun laws by NPR’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro :
“At the dilapidated morgue in the northern Brazilian city of Natal, Director Marcos Brandao walks over the blood-smeared floor to where the corpses are kept. He points out the labels attached to the bright metal doors, counting out loud. It has not been a particularly bad night, yet there are nine shooting victims in cold storage.”
We understand right away that the story will be about a high rate of gun-related murder in Brazil. And this is a much more vivid and gripping way of conveying it than if Lulu had simply stated that the rate of gun violence is high.
Lulu also does a great job setting the scene. Which leads us to …
Scene-setting lead
Byrd Pinkerton, a 2016 NPR intern, didn’t set foot in this obscure scholarly haven , but you’d never guess it from the way she draws readers into her story:
“On the second floor of an old Bavarian palace in Munich, Germany, there’s a library with high ceilings, a distinctly bookish smell and one of the world’s most extensive collections of Latin texts. About 20 researchers from all over the world work in small offices around the room.”
This scene-setting is just one benefit of Byrd’s thorough reporting. We even get a hint of how the place smells.
First-person lead
The first-person lead should be used sparingly. It means you, the writer, are immediately a character in your own story. For purists, this is not a comfortable position. Why should a reader be interested in you? You need to make sure your first-person presence is essential — because you experienced something or have a valuable contribution and perspective that justifies conveying the story explicitly through your own eyes. Just make sure you are bringing your readers along with you.
Here, in the spirit of first-personhood, is an example from one of my own stories :
“For many of us, Sept. 11, 2001, is one of those touchstone dates — we remember exactly where we were when we heard that the planes hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. I was in Afghanistan.”
On a historic date, I was in a place where very few Americans were present, meaning I’m able to serve as a guide to that place and time. Rather than stating I was in Afghanistan in the first sentence, I tried to draw in readers by reminding them that the memory of Sept. 11 is something many of us share in common, regardless of where we were that day.
Observational lead
This kind of lead steps back to make an authoritative observation about the story and its broader context. For it to work, you need to understand not just the immediate piece you’re writing, but also the big picture. These are useful for stories running a day or more after the news breaks.
Here’s one by the Washington Post’s Karen Tumulty , a political reporter with decades of experience:
“At the lowest point of Donald Trump’s quest for the presidency, the Republican nominee might have brought in a political handyman to sand his edges. Instead, he put his campaign in the hands of a true believer who promises to amplify the GOP nominee’s nationalist message and reinforce his populist impulses.”
And here’s another by NPR’s Camila Domonoske , who knows her literary stuff, juxtaposing the mundane (taxes) with the highbrow (literary criticism):
“Tax records and literary criticism are strange bedfellows. But over the weekend, the two combined and brought into the world a literary controversy — call it the Ferrante Furor of 2016.”
Zinger lead
Edna Buchanan, the legendary, Pulitzer Prize-winning crime reporter for the Miami Herald , once said that a good lead should make a reader sitting at breakfast with his wife “spit out his coffee, clutch his chest and say, ‘My god, Martha. Did you read this?’”
That’s as good a definition as any of a “zinger” lead. These are a couple of Buchanan’s:
“His last meal was worth $30,000 and it killed him.” (A man died while trying to smuggle cocaine-filled condoms in his gut.)
“Bad things happen to the husbands of Widow Elkin.” (Ms. Elkin, as you might surmise, was suspected of bumping off her spouses.)
After Ryan Lochte’s post-Olympic Games, out-of-the-water escapades in Rio, Sally Jenkins, writing in the Washington Post , unleashed this zinger:
“Ryan Lochte is the dumbest bell that ever rang.”
Roy Peter Clark, of the Poynter Institute, deconstructs Jenkins’ column here , praising her “short laser blast of a lead that captures the tone and message of the piece.”
Here are a few notes on things to avoid when writing leads:
- Clichés and terrible puns. This goes for any part of your story, and never more so than in the lead. Terrible puns aren’t just the ones that make a reader groan — they’re in bad taste, inappropriate in tone or both. Here’s one example .
- Long, rambling sentences. Don’t try to cram way too much information into one sentence or digress and meander or become repetitive. Clarity and simplicity rule.
- Straining to be clever. Don’t write a lead that sounds better than it means or promises more than it can deliver. You want your reader to keep reading, not to stop and figure out something that sounds smart but is actually not very meaningful. Here’s John McPhee again: “A lead should not be cheap, flashy, meretricious, blaring: After a tremendous fanfare of verbal trumpets, a mouse comes out of a hole, blinking.”
- Saying someone “could never have predicted.” It’s not an informative observation to say someone “could never have imagined” the twists and turns his or her life would take. Of course they couldn’t! It’s better to give the reader something concrete and interesting about that person instead.
- The weather . Unless your story is about the weather, the weather plays a direct role in it or it’s essential for setting the scene, it doesn’t belong in the lead. Here’s a story about Donald Trump’s financial dealings that would have lost nothing if the first, weather-referenced sentence had been omitted.
One secret to a good lead
Finally, good reporting will lead to good leads. If your reporting is incomplete, that will often show up in a weak lead. If you find yourself struggling to come up with a decent lead or your lead just doesn’t seem strong, make sure your reporting is thorough and there aren’t unanswered questions or missing details and points. If you’ve reported your story well, your lead will reflect this.
Further reading:
- A Poynter roundup of bad leads
- A classic New Yorker story by Calvin Trillin with a great lead about one of Buchanan’s best-known leads.
- A long read by John McPhee , discussing, among other things, “fighting fear and panic, because I had no idea where or how to begin a piece of writing for The New Yorker .” It happens to everyone!
Hannah Bloch is a digital editor for international news at NPR.
Editing & Structure Reporting Writing & Voice
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Jan 19, 2017
Tips on How to Structure a Hard News Story
As part of my English degree at a university that specialises in media, I have often had to practise writing news article assignments. I have generally found this quite a challenge as I have always struggled with the structure and formation of a hard news story. It is particularly challenging when you have gone out of your way to gather multiple sources, and in your opinion feel that they are equally as valid and as important as one another. I therefore often got caught up in separating opinions from the facts, leading to a recipe for disaster! Nobody wants to get their facts wrong, provide a biased story, or lack clear and concise information.
If you have struggled and stressed over the structure of a news story, like me, take a deep breath, and have a read over these simple steps.
The headline is usually a small space that should fulfil its purpose of conveying the general message of the story. The headline needs to remain informational, but can also be witty to attract attention, puns are popular in newspaper headlines, (where appropriate). The theme of the article should be taken into consideration before using puns.
The lead is said to be the most important part of the news story. It is the first sentence of the story, and should summarise to the reader, who, what, where, when, why and how. This should focus on essential and factual information. The reader should be able to understand the story being told through the first 1–2 sentences. It must remain short, to the point and concise.
The body of the article focuses on the areas that need elaborating. This consists of explaining in more detail when, how and why the incident took place.
The tail of the article positions background information about an event, company, or person relative to the situation. The tail can be said to be less newsworthy as it is not vital information, but further provides the reader with information around the topic. Quotes are also said to go here to express both sides of a story and prevent bias.
It is important to remember that hard news stories follow a precise formula, unlike opinion pieces, interviews and soft news stories.
Always take a look at hard news organisations for guidance, such as the BBC, or Sky News if you need reassurance.
Remember to have short paragraphs and sentences to remain to the point. No waffle!
It sounds pretty cut-throat if you ask me, but it is honestly just practice. I realised that some people have to practice for longer to get certain things right and there really is no shame in that. Just a greater feeling of accomplishment once you have achieved it!
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How to Write a Soft News Article
Hard news stories that give readers the facts about crimes, house fires, government actions and accidents are often considered the "real news," but "soft" stories -- those that are based on people, ongoing activities or situations, or broader trends -- can be just as compelling and helpful to people in their everyday lives. A good "soft" feature story draws the reader in emotionally while conveying clear, accurate information.
Writing Your Introduction
Soft news might be a story about a school program, a profile of a notable person or organization, or a human interest piece giving local insight into a social issue, but it may often be more relevant to readers' lives than a story about an accident or the arrest of an accused criminal.
Unlike a hard news story, in which the first paragraph must contain the who, what, where, when, and why, a soft news story can begin with a paragraph crafted to hook the reader and draw him in:
"If you've visited downtown Kingston in the last few years, you may have noticed that it lacked a central place to go for information. Pat Smith had the same experience as a newcomer. 'I wanted to find out which restaurants did birthday parties, but I had to go home and make a ton of phone calls,' she says. Smith decided to make a few more phone calls, and today visitors are greeted by the newly opened Tourism Center."
The All-Important "Nut Graf"
Your opening can be more literary or conversational, but within the first three paragraphs you want to include a "nut graf" that gets the reader up to speed on the five basic Ws:
"The Visitor's Center, which held its ribbon-cutting last week, is located in the former Armory building at 235 Broadway. Four days a week, from Thursday through Sunday, an all-volunteer staff will be on hand to answer visitors' every question. The center is being managed by Mayor Jones' office, and is funded by the Community Development Corporation."
Soft News Writing Tips
Hard news is written in a very specific style, sticking strictly to the facts and avoiding poetic language or metaphor. Soft news allows the writer more room for creativity. Start by asking yourself what someone with no knowledge about your topic needs to know, and be certain to include that information.
Make sure everything in your story is absolutely factual, but don't be afraid to use anecdotes, look for quirky angles to highlight and include detail that brings your story to vivid life. Find out who is doing what, the forces that drive them, and how the situation feels, sounds, looks and smells on the ground. Take the reader on a voyage of discovery.
Concluding a Soft News Story
Wrap the essential information into a tidy package for your reader. You can use a more literary form here too, with an anecdote or quote:
"Smith now works two shifts a week at the center she helped create. Today, she's already helped a job seeker find public transportation and given a young man suggestions for romantic dates. 'I remember how stuck and lost I felt,' she says. 'I wanted to make sure no one else had to feel that way, ever again.' Thanks to her efforts and the cooperation of city agencies, that problem would appear to be solved."
Make sure your reader has the information she needs and knows where to access more on the subject. This can often be done with an italicized sentence following the end of your story, rather than within it:
"The Visitor's Center is open Thursday through Sunday, 10 a.m. through 6 p.m. For more information, call (xxx)xxx-xxxx or visit www.website.org."
Anne Pyburn Craig has written for a range of regional and local publications ranging from in-depth local investigative journalism to parenting, business, real estate and green building publications. She frequently writes tourism and lifestyle articles for chamber of commerce publications and is a respected book reviewer.
Writing a Compelling, Informative News Lede
Snappy ledes tell who, what, where, when, why, and how.
Tom Merton / Getty Images
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- M.S., Journalism, Columbia University
- B.A., Journalism, University of Wisconsin-Madison
What is a lede? A lede is the first paragraph of any news story. Many would say that it’s also the most important part, as it introduces what is to come. A good lede must accomplish three specific things:
- Give readers the main points of the story
- Get readers interested in reading the story
- Accomplish both of these in as few words as possible
Typically, editors want ledes to be no longer than 35 to 40 words. Why so short? Well, readers want their news delivered quickly, and a short lede does just that.
What Goes in a Lede?
For news stories, journalists use the inverted pyramid format , which means starting with the "five W’s and H:” who, what, where, when, why, and how.
- Who: Who is the story about?
- What: What happened in the story?
- Where: Where did the event you’re writing about occur?
- When: When did it occur?
- Why: Why did this happen?
- How: How did this happen?
Lede Examples
Now that you understand the basics of a lede , see them in action with these examples.
Lede Example 1
Let’s say you’re writing a story about a man who was injured when he fell off a ladder. Here are your "five W’s and H:"
- Who: the man
- What: He fell off a ladder while painting.
- Where: at his house
- When: yesterday
- Why: The ladder was rickety.
- How: The rickety ladder broke.
So your lede might go something like this:
"A man was injured yesterday after falling from a rickety ladder which collapsed as he was painting his home."
This sums up the main points of the story in just 19 words, which is all you need for a good lede.
Lede Example 2
Now you’re writing a story about a house fire in which three people suffered smoke inhalation. Here are your "five W’s and H:"
- Who: three people
- What: They suffered smoke inhalation in a house fire and were hospitalized.
- Where: at their house
- Why: A man fell asleep while smoking in bed.
- How: The cigarette ignited the man's mattress.
Here's how this lede might go:
"Three people were hospitalized for smoke inhalation yesterday from a house fire. Officials say the fire was ignited when a man in the home fell asleep while smoking in bed."
This lede clocks in at 30 words. It's a little longer than the last one, but still short and to the point.
Lede Example 3
Here's something a bit more complicated—this is a story about a hostage situation. Here are your "five W’s and H:"
- Who: six people, one gunman
- What: The gunman held six people hostage in a restaurant for two hours before surrendering to police.
- Where: Billy Bob's Barbecue Joint
- When: last night
- Why: The gunman tried robbing the restaurant but police arrived before he could escape.
- How: He ordered the six people into the kitchen.
"A failed robbery of Billy Bob’s Barbeque last evening resulted in six being held hostage as police surrounded the building. The suspect surrendered without incident following a two-hour standoff."
This lede is 29 words, which is impressive for a story that has a bit more complexity to it.
Write Ledes on Your Own
Here are some examples to try on your own.
Lede Exercise 1
- Who: Barrett Bradley, the president of Centerville College
- What: He announced tuition will be raised 5%.
- Where: at a gathering in the college's amphitheater
- Why: The college is facing a $3 million deficit.
- How: He will ask the college's board of trustees to approve the tuition hike.
Lede Exercise 2
- Who: Melvin Washington, point guard for the Centerville High School basketball team
- What: He scored a record 48 points to lead the team to the state championship over the rival team from Roosevelt High School.
- Where: in the school's gymnasium
- Why: Washington is a gifted athlete who observers say has an NBA career ahead of him.
- How: He is a remarkably precise shooter who excels at making three-pointers.
Lede Exercise 3
- Who: Centerville Mayor Ed Johnson
- What: He held a press conference announcing he has a drinking problem and is stepping down from his post.
- Where: in his office at City Hall
- When: today
- Why: Johnson says he is entering rehab to deal with his alcoholism.
- How: He will step down and deputy mayor Helen Peterson will take over.
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How to write a news – basics, tips and format
- Post author: ashwini
- Post published: November 16, 2018
- Post category: Beginner
- Post comments: 0 Comments
In simple terms, a piece of news is a report of an event. It could be a crime, a statement by a public figure, a product launch, a price drop, a product leak or anything that has happened and is worth reporting.
But is writing a news story as simple as just letting the users know about the event? While it might sound pretty easy and straightforward, technically it isn’t.
A news story should be short, yet convey all the relevant information.
News writing basics:
The basics of news writing include what to write and how to write. You write to be read, not to be ignored. Until and unless your news story is informative and well-written, chances of readers leaving it midway are very high.
What to write
Stick to the Five Ws of journalism – Who, What, When, Where and Why. A complete story should cover – Who was (or were) involved, What happened, When did it happen, Where did it take place and Why did it happen? Some experts also talk about including How (How did it happen?), but that can be efficiently covered under the Five Ws itself.
How to write
The five Ws mentioned above will be covered by almost every person writing that particular news, so how do you write will actually make your copy stand out of others. Follow these simple news writing tips and techniques to make your news story a great one.
- Write a great headline
- Stick to the format (discussed below)
- Keep your writing tight. Write concise sentences with simple verbs. The entire article should be easily consumable. If a reader needs to reread your paragraphs to understand the story, it probably needs improvement. Follow the basics of content writing
- Avoid repeating the same information again and again
- When quoting someone, use their full name and designation. However, when mentioning the same person for the second time, just use the last name ( As an exception, avoid this if two persons with the same last name are involved)
- Avoid giving opinions while reporting a sensitive news (like crime, accident etc.). However, on light topics e.g. product launch, movie promotion events etc., feel free to be opiniative.
- Until and unless something has been proven, use words like allegedly, purportedly etc. Don’t be a judge yourself.
News writing format
Inverted Pyramid is considered as the most popular news writing format across the globe. According to this format, a news starts with the lede and then presents facts in the descending order of importance.
Source: Pressbooks
The Lede: The Lede (aka The Lead) is the first paragraph of your news story. It should convey the complete news through the five W’s discussed above. An optimal lede should not be longer than 2-3 lines.
e.g. A speeding truck hit a car on the highway connecting city A to city B in the early hours of Wednesday, leaving three people dead and one critically injured. The driver has been arrested.
The body: This part of the news should contain further details with informative materials like facts, figures, images, videos, background information etc. Make sure to present the data in the descending order of importance.
The tail: Here you can put the less relevant information. It could be your opinion on the matter, some related news that happened in the past or anything that you think should add more value to the report.
Note that most of the readers will read only the first couple of paragraphs word by word and simply skim (read in fast mode, skipping lines in between) the rest ones. This is why it is important to put valuable information first.
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Career options as a content writer
Basics of content writing: A step-by-step guide
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Chapter 1: The Beginner’s Module
- Lesson 1.1: Career options as a content writer
- Lesson 1.2: Can you actually become a successful content writer? Ask yourself these five questions first.
- Lesson 1.3: Skill check – Can you write a paragraph correctly?
- Lesson 1.4: The basic grammar and punctuation cheat sheet
- Lesson 1.5: Basics of content writing
- Lesson 1.6: How to write powerful headlines
- Exercise 1.1: Write your first blog post
Chapter 2: Sharpening your skills
- Lesson 2.1: Different types of content and how you should write them
- Lesson 2.2: Mistakes to avoid
- Lesson 2.3: Make your content engaging and discoverable
- Exercise 2.1: Write your second blog post
- Exercise 2.2: Write your first guest post
Chapter 3: Becoming a pro
- Lesson 3.1: Tips to improve your writing skills further
- Exercise 3.1: Earn your first penny as a freelance content writer
- Exercise 3.2: Write another blog post and your second guest post
- Lesson 3.2: Prepare yourself for the launch
- Lesson 3.3: Decide – Job or freelancing – Advantages and disadvantages
- Lesson 3.4: Take the final step – launch your career
Chapter 4: Scaling up your business (Bonus chapter)
- Lesson 4.1: Secrets of a successful freelancer: How to get more job than you can handle
- Lesson 4.2: How not to get dumped by fake clients?
- Lesson 4.3: Gaining long-term clients: Key to sustainable business
- Lesson 4.4: Summary
How to Write a News Article: Headlines
- What Is News?
- How to Interview
- The Intro or Lede
- Article Format/Narrative
- How To Write A Review
- Writing News Style
- Naming Sources
- Revising/Proofreading
- Photos/Graphics
- The Future of News?
About Headlines
Headlines are becoming increasingly important in the internet age. Not only do they capture the reader's attention, they serve as source material for search engines. Today a reader is just as likely to come across an article by reading a list of search engine results as by scanning a newspaper page.
Headlines should be clear and specific, telling the reader what the story is about, and be interesting enough to draw them into reading the article.
- 5-10 words at the most
- City Council to Cut Taxes doesn't mean the same thing as City Council to Cut Budget
- Man Skateboards for Homeless
- Convention to Create Jobs
- Do not use articles - a, an, the
- President Declares Peace, Holiday
- Crackdown on Trafficking doesn't tell you who's doing the trafficking and what kind of trafficking
- Rays Win - not Rays Win Final Game of Playoffs
- They Win Pennant!
- Rays Flip-Flop On St. Petersburg
More on Headlines
- Headline Analyzer Tool
- How to Write an Irresistible Headline
- Keys to a Compelling Headline
- Newspapers search for Web headline magic
- This Boring Headline Is Written for Google
- World's Best Headlines: BBC News
- << Previous: Naming Sources
- Next: Revising/Proofreading >>
- Last Updated: Dec 6, 2022 3:08 PM
- URL: https://spcollege.libguides.com/news
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Writing a newspaper report
Learning focus.
To learn about the features of a newspaper and write your own newspaper article.
This lesson includes:
one video with tips on how to turn a story into a newspaper article
one video about the actions of Rosa Parks
three activities
In today’s lesson, you are going to write a newspaper article about the actions that a woman called Rosa Parks took in 1955.
But first, you’re going to revise what makes a good newspaper article.
Start by watching this clip.
Newspaper articles should:
Include facts. You can do this by answering the 5 Ws: what, when, who, where, why?
Have a short, snappy and informative headline.
Provide a summary at the start explaining what happened (but not giving everything away!).
Use paragraphs to help the reader clearly understand the information.
Provide quotes to show people’s opinions about the event.
You could also include a picture with a caption to help the reader visualise what happened and who was involved.
Your writing should also:
Be formal (written as though you’re talking to someone older than you, like a teacher)
Use third person pronouns (he, she, it, they)
Be in the past tense (because the events have already happened)
You may need paper and a pen or pencil for some of these activities.
Read this Newsround article, called Mumbai Traffic - will clever red lights make drivers honk less?
It’s a good example so you can use it as inspiration for your own writing.
Once you’ve read the article, answer the questions below. You can write down your answers, think about them to yourself, or discuss them with someone at home.
What is the first thing at the very top of the article?
Does the first paragraph give away all the information about the story? What do we call this paragraph?
Is the article written in the third person ? Find a pronoun to prove this.
Is the article written in the past tense ? Find a verb to prove this.
There are no examples of direct quotes from people. Try writing down or thinking of two quotes that could have come from different Mumbai residents. One should be a fact and the other an opinion .
Does the article answer the 5 Ws: what, when, who, where, why?
Watch this video about the actions that a woman called Rosa Parks took in 1955. You will be reporting on her story afterwards.
Now fill in the ‘Article planner' to the right, using information from the video.
You can print it out if you like, or draw your own on a piece of paper.
In each box, make notes that show what you will include in each section of your article.
You don't need to write in full sentences when you are planning.
- Watch the video as many times as you want to make sure you’ve got all the information and facts you need for your article.
Article Planner
Now write your newspaper article.
Remember to:
Include a headline at the top of your article. Make it short and snappy. You could even use alliteration.
Use your planning sheet to help you write in full sentences.
Look back at the Learn section for inspiration. These will help you remember what to include and how to write your newspaper article.
You could start with these sentences, if you like:
On December 1st 1955, a woman called Rosa Parks refused to give her bus seat up for a white person. Her actions resulted in a bus boycott across the American city of Montgomery. Here's more about what happened.
Where next?
In this lesson you have revised the features of a newspaper and written your own newspaper article.
There are other useful articles on Bitesize to help you improve your non-fiction writing.
What are instruction manuals?
What’s the difference between adverts and brochures?
There's more to learn
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How to Write a Newspaper Article?
Writing a newspaper article is unlike writing other informative articles because a news article delivers content in a particular way. It’s essential to present information within a limited word count and to do so in a way that answers the five “W’s”: Who, What, Where, When, and Why.
This article will show you how to write a newspaper article for any school level. Learning this important skill may pave the way for a career in journalism, so we’re going to address several questions we get from students who are looking to learn how to write a good newspaper article that presents information clearly and concisely.
Six Parts of a Newspaper Article
Before we jump into how to write a newspaper article it’s important to identify the 6 parts that make up the article. Following this newspaper article format ensures that you incorporate all of the necessary components that make for a great article:
- Headline – This succinctly tells the reader exactly what the news story is about in a single phrase or sentence (e.g., Cavs Expected to Land #1 Pick ).
- Sub-Title – This supports the headline by expanding on the subject in one or two sentences (e.g., The Cleveland Cavaliers are looking to trade up with Golden State Warriors to pick #1 in next year’s draft ).
- Byline – This line tells the reader who wrote the story and may provide some background information (e.g., John Smith – 20+ Years of Covering Cleveland Sports ).
- Lead – The opening paragraph should tell all of the most important facts, addressing the who, what, where, when, and why).
- Body – This constitutes the majority of the article, containing more information on a piece of news.
- Quotes – These important because they provide direct sources for information from eyewitness, experts, and other people relevant to the news story.
How to Write a Newspaper Article for School
Students of all levels want that need to learn how do you write a newspaper article find this simple 3-step process to be the most helpful. You can apply this to any type of article with just a few adjustments. Read this process carefully before starting on your assignment to ensure you understand it. This will prevent you from making mistakes and having to start over.
- Research your topic as much as possible before you get started. For your persuasive article to be viewed as credible, you must know your topic inside and out. Start by answering the 5 W’s we mentioned earlier. It’s advised you have a dedicated notebook or note cards to gather all of the related facts about the story.
- Next, you need to organize your facts . A great way of doing so is to break up your facts into three categories: 1) facts that must be included, 2) facts that are interesting but not essential, and 3) facts that are related but are not important to the main purpose. You want to be as detailed as possible when listing your facts. You can always cut out excess information when you start writing, reviewing, and editing the article.
- Create an outline to guide your writing. Many students want to learn how to write a newspaper article example so that they have a template they can keep referring to as they write more pieces. This is a great idea but it is much easier to find a few stories of similar style and length and then to build a good outline following the professionals.
- There are six parts to any news article which we have already mentioned. Leave the header, sub-header, and byline until the end. Start with the lead . This is the opening paragraph that provides all of the important details the reader must know to understand the rest of the article.
- After listing all of the most important factual information in the opening paragraph, follow up with additional content in the article’s body. There is no set amount of sentences or the number of paragraphs for the article. This will be determined by the specified word count which will vary from assignment to assignment. Try to keep your paragraphs short for improved readability.
- Finally, conclude your article with a strong sticking point that rewards the reader for sticking with you to the end. You can close by restating the opening statement or by giving some idea about anticipated future developments. You can also give the reader information for a call to action (e.g., a phone number or an address) he or she may be interested in knowing about.
- The reviewing, editing, and proofreading exercises for a newspaper article are the same as for any other writing assignment. Try doing each of these exercises separately, giving yourself plenty of time in between to ensure that you always approach the writing with renewed vigor and a fresh perspective. If you use a newspaper article generator, make sure you double-check grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Even the most sophisticated electronic programs can make some costly mistakes that could keep your piece from being published.
How to Write a Newspaper Article about an Event
Many students get started learning how to write a newspaper article based on an event. This could be something planned for the school or the community. Students can report on the event before it occurs or can report on the event after it takes place. In both cases, the above 3-step process can be used to cover all the important details that a reader would like to know about. Time-management is very important since the event in question will occur at a specific date and time, so students must be fully prepared.
How to Make a Newspaper Article in a Short Timeline
What we mean by a short timeline is having to write a news story within a couple of days. This is the situation most journalists find themselves in. They are often given a story to research and report on and are required to submit a polished article to be published online or in print while the story is still fresh. You can follow the same 3-step process discussed above which should come naturally with plenty of dedicated practice.
How to Write a News Article Overnight
If you need to learn how to write an article for a newspaper overnight (which is common situation journalists face when there is breaking news), you follow the same steps we’ve covered above but cut some corners to get the article to the publisher early in the morning. Generally, you can combine the reviewing, editing, and proofreading exercises or you can minimize the time you spend in between each of these to just a few minutes.
How to Get a Newspaper to Write an Article about You
The fastest and easiest way to get a newspaper to write a story about you is to be involved in an important event or a situation that generates plenty of interest locally or nationally. Several local newspapers do human interest stories as well. You simply need to have a good story to tell. Perhaps you can discuss your involvement with the community or you can explain a unique story that inspires others. Most of the time newspapers will come to you, but you can also submit your ideas for an interview.
If you need more assistance on writing a persuasive news article or any other type of writing, our academic experts are ready to help. We can show you how to write a newspaper article template or an outline. We can review, edit, and write an article on any piece of news you have. Just email, call or chat with one of our friendly customer support staff members and he or she will connect you with a writing expert.
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How to Write a Newspaper Headline
Last Updated: February 8, 2023 References Approved
This article was co-authored by Megan Morgan, PhD . Megan Morgan is a Graduate Program Academic Advisor in the School of Public & International Affairs at the University of Georgia. She earned her PhD in English from the University of Georgia in 2015. There are 7 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. In this case, several readers have written to tell us that this article was helpful to them, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 256,847 times.
Choosing a limited number of words to convey the main point of an article is the key challenge when considering how to write a newspaper headline. Because newspaper headlines are limited by the space available on the printed page, word choice and clarity are crucial to a good headline. In the digital age, newspaper headlines for online publications must also be searchable and make readers want to click on them to read more. [1] X Research source
Understanding the Purpose of a Newspaper Headline
- Accuracy is very important when writing a newspaper headline, as you do not want to create an unintended meaning or confuse your reader. Avoid exaggerating or embellishing the content in the article by using an overblown headline. Instead, aim to communicate clearly with your reader through a short, one to three word headline.
- Often, readers will be willing to read a headline that provides factual information that will solve a problem they might have or provide the answer to a question. For example, the headline: Lincoln: ‘The war has begun' would be of interest to people reading the newspaper in 1860, as it would answer their question: What is going on with the civil war in the United States?
- As well, a reader may continue reading an article with a headline like: Make Your Car Engine Sparkle if she is looking to solve the problem of cleaning her car engine.
- Keep in mind the expectations for newspaper headlines for online publications have shifted from more traditional rules of newspaper headline writing. Many websites will sacrifice accuracy and information for headlines that over promise or exaggerate a news story. Online newspaper headlines, and some print headlines, are also using emotion to tap into a reader’s curiosity and encourage the reader to read the rest of the article. [6] X Research source
- For example, headlines like: The Cutest Otters on the Internet and You’ll Never Believe Who Prince Harry is Dating Now contain very little actual information and are full of hyperbole. However, these types of headlines are very common in online publications and some current print publications. You may also come across headlines that telegraph emotion, or tap into the reader’s emotions, such as: Daughter Comes Out to Father in Video. His Response Will Make You Cry , or Images of Men That Will Make You Happy on a Monday .
- These types of headlines appeal to a certain audience and are usually used for light news stories. Hyperbolic headlines are not recommended for breaking news stories about local events, world events, and social and political topics as they can weaken the professionalism of the article. Rather than appeal to emotion or exaggeration, focus on creating newspaper headlines that inform your reader and that are based on fact.
Writing a Newspaper Headline
- For example, in an article about migrants found dead in a truck in Vienna, the first sentence of the article might read: “The decomposing bodies of as many as 50 people assumed to be migrants being smuggled across Europe were found in a truck abandoned on a highway east of Vienna on Thursday, the police said.” You may then highlight key details that should be included in the headline, such as the location of the incident (Austria), the number of people dead (as many as 50), who the people were (migrants), and where they were found (in an abandoned truck). Your headline may then be: Austria Finds Up to 50 Bodies Thought to be Migrants in Truck . [7] X Research source
- Another example is an article on Google and the European Union’s antitrust laws, with the first sentence: “Google on Thursday rejected claims from the European Union’s top antitrust official that the company favored some of its own search results over those of rivals, saying there was significant competition in the region’s online search market and that the company’s services increased choice for local consumers.” You may then come up with a short, clear headline that identifies the subject of the article (Google), the action the subject is taking (denying or rejecting), and who the subject is reacting to (European Union’s accusations of violating antitrust laws): Google Denies Europe’s Antitrust Accusations . [8] X Research source
- Avoid verbs like “think”, “believe” or “feel”, as these are not verbs based on fact or statements. The headline should use only factual evidence from the article and should not be based on emotion or uncertainty. [9] X Research source
- An effective headline should also be written with logical sentence structure and a strong present tense verb. Using the active voice will make the headline feel immediate and draw your reader in. For example, a weak headline in the passive voice, with weak verbs, might be: No affair, says Clinton, suggests witness should ‘tell the truth’ . A better headline in the active voice, with action verbs, might be: Clinton claims no affair, urges witness to ‘tell the truth’ . The second headline is much clearer and the subject of the article (Clinton) is stated first in the headline.
- You should also avoid using words that could be read as either a noun or a verb. For example, in the headline Violinist linked to JAL crash blossoms , the verb “blossom” can be read as a noun or a verb in the context of the rest of the headline. The reader is not sure if “crash blossoms” refers to the noun “blossoms” or the verb “to blossom”. [10] X Research source If you read the article, you will understand the headline is referring to a violinist. Her father dies in a crash, but her career blossoms. The headline only makes sense once you read the article, which means the headline itself is confusing and not useful to the reader.
- You likely will not create a headline for an event that happened in the distant past, unless there are new developments in relation to the event. You can use the past tense or the present tense for the headline. For example, Robert Durst Murder Case Reopened in Light of New Evidence or Robert Durst Murder Case Reopens in Light of New Evidence .
- Whenever possible, remove articles like “an”, “a”, “the” and connecting terms like “because” or “due to” in the headline. These are considered padding in a headline and are not necessary to get the key points of the article across. For example, The Robert Durst Murder case will be reopened because of new evidence can be shortened to Robert Durst Murder Case Reopens in Light of New Evidence .
- For example, Syrian head visits Senate . In this headline, “head” is a headlines, as it is not clear if the headline is referring to an actual head of a Syrian or a Syrian who is the head of a department or office.
- Similarly, the headline FBI probe expected in hijacking case is confusing as it uses the headline jargon “probe”, but this term does not give the reader any clear information about the actions of the FBI. A stronger headline might be: FBI investigation expected in hijacking case .
- For example, a news story on a former environmental disaster zone in Hungary that use reinvented itself as a center for sustainable energy might have a headline like: Town hit by red sludge goes green . This headline works because it is factually accurate, and uses a simple pun (red to green). [13] X Research source
- Is it in good taste? Is there anything possibly offensive in the headline? Can anything in the headline be taken the wrong way?
- Is it attractive to the reader? Can it be improved so it is more engaging and interesting, without sacrificing accuracy?
- Does it communicate the key points of the article? Is it clear and simple? Does it use the active voice and active verbs? Are there any odd words or double meanings that could confuse the reader?
- Is it accurate? Are the proper words or terms from the article used in the headline? Is the headline factually correct?
- If you answer no to any of these questions, you will need to rethink the headline and adjust it so it meets the TACT criteria.
Formatting the Headline
- All headlines should be flush to the left and should not take up more than one to two lines in the publication. In general, shorter headlines are best.
- For example, 3 dead in car crash , or 20 dead in explosion .
- Use periods for abbreviations only in headlines. For example, U.S. fights Iranian government .
- Use single quotes for any double quotes in the article. For example, Lincoln: ‘The war has begun’ , Clinton urges witness to ‘tell the truth’ .
- You can also use a colon as a substitute for the word “said” in a headline. For example, Lincoln: War inevitable, victory essential .
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- ↑ https://www.grammarly.com/blog/how-to-write-a-catchy-headline-in-1-minute-and-7-seconds/
- ↑ http://www.columbia.edu/itc/journalism/isaacs/client_edit/Headlines.html
- ↑ https://www.wyliecomm.com/2021/06/how-long-should-a-press-release-headline-be/
- ↑ https://crowdfavorite.com/how-to-write-effective-attention-grabbing-headlines/
- ↑ https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34073534
- ↑ https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/es/MEMO_17_1785
- ↑ http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/09/secrets-great-headline-writing
About This Article
To write a newspaper headline, identify the key terms in your story that tell readers what the article is about. You want the headline to clearly reflect the content without exaggerating or embellishing the story. Once you have a short list of keywords, connect them using action verbs, which makes the headline more exciting. For example, “Shopkeeper defends store from thieves.” Make sure your headline is in present tense, which makes it sound more immediate and engaging. If it’s a casual or fun story, you can use a pun or joke, but avoid using these for serious articles. For more tips from our English co-author, including how to use Search Engine Optimization for online headlines, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No
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We can’t keep putting apartment residents’ waste in the too hard basket
Research Fellow, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University
Deputy Pro Vice Chancellor, Research & Innovation, College of Design & Social Context, RMIT University, RMIT University
Disclosure statement
Bhavna Middha receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) Industrial Transformation Research Hub for Transformation of Reclaimed Waste Resources to Engineered Materials and Solutions for a Circular Economy (TREMS)
Ralph Horne receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) Industrial Transformation Research Hub for Transformation of Reclaimed Waste Resources to Engineered Materials and Solutions for a Circular Economy (TREMS)
RMIT University provides funding as a strategic partner of The Conversation AU.
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The harsh realities of managing the waste we produce are in the news: councils shunning new glass bins , more plastic being produced per person in the world and Sydney bins overflowing . And the growth in apartment living in Australia threatens to add to these problems. Apartments worldwide have lower recycling rates than standalone houses.
Our research on apartments and plastic use in four cities – Melbourne, London, Barcelona and Perth – found apartments present extra challenges for waste production, collection, sorting and disposal. Our ongoing research project is exploring ways to minimise kerbside waste and maximise recycling. The problems with apartments arise from issues of space, design, infrastructure (such as bins, chutes and pick-ups of bins and hard waste) and the resources put into managing their waste.
However, there are examples in cities in Australia and overseas of schemes that have improved apartment waste recycling so it matches, if not exceeds, that of standalone houses.
Read more: Households find low-waste living challenging. Here's what needs to change
What is being done about these problems?
In Victoria, the state government has mandated a new, separate bin to collect waste glass from households. Glass is a high-impact packaging material, due to the energy and water used in both its production and recycling.
Broken glass is also a major contaminant for paper and cardboard in current mixed waste streams. The container deposit scheme being introduced in Victoria, along with glass bins, will help separate glass from this recycling stream.
However, challenges lie ahead. Some local councils are showing signs of refusing to provide bins for glass. Lack of space for multiple bins is one key reason. Multi-unit developments and apartments are just not designed for such infrastructure.
COVID-19 led to an explosion in the quantity of packaging waste because of online orders and deliveries. Plastic waste in particular appears to be largely out of control, despite growing angst and even bans on the use of some plastics.
Read more: REDcycle's collapse is more proof that plastic recycling is a broken system
But waste management has been a problem for apartment buildings around the world since long before the pandemic.
For example, 30 apartment buildings in Seattle are exempted from providing recycling bins due to a lack of space. And in Sydney, residents of the Waterloo public housing estate have been surprised to be entirely excluded from the city’s recycling scheme due to contamination of recycled waste streams.
Research in the United States found a gap in recycling between apartments of different socioeconomic status was due to lower service levels (caretaking and janitorial) in low-income buildings.
It’s not just an individual responsibility
Thus far, action on waste production and prevention is limited to voluntary covenants for producers of packaging, and programs promoting changes in individual behaviour.
Households bear the brunt of responsibility – especially in apartments, where space to manage different bins, their smells and aesthetics is at a premium. Yet it is manufacturers and retailers who design and make highly packaged and non-recyclable materials.
While the rubbish keeps piling up, producers’ mostly ineffectual voluntary agreements lie on virtual shelves. A case in point is Sydney council blaming worker shortages and COVID-19 overflow for the rubbish piling up, rather than the original producers of waste.
Read more: If the UN wants to slash plastic waste, it must tackle soaring plastic production - and why we use so much of it
Our continuing research is exploring the issues associated with apartments. These issues include how waste is produced – for example, through the demand created for packaging – and available space, as well as how policymakers, architects, builders and householders conceive of everyday apartment living.
In the shared spaces of apartments, waste production, collection, sorting and disposal depend on the design of these spaces and the organisation of infrastructure for collection and disposal.
Read more: Four bins might help, but to solve our waste crisis we need a strong market for recycled products
What more can be done?
We are exploring examples that try to break free of blaming individual choices and behaviours. The latter approach might produce short-term gains but fails to embed long-term changes – as this project in London showed . It’s possible, though, to design circular economy systems for apartments that match or even exceed waste recycling for detached suburban houses.
For example, in the City of Melbourne’s trial of dehydrators in apartment buildings food waste is collected and processed on the premises. It recognises that individual apartments often lack space for composting.
In South Korea, apartments are an integral part of the recycling regime . Some have recycling bin space, including food waste bins, on every floor.
Read more: Despite government delays, food waste recycling bins are coming to your kitchen sooner than you think
The city of New York has developed “zero waste” guidelines based on case studies in organic waste management and disposal in apartment buildings. The program includes retrofitting buildings.
To improve the recycling of waste from apartments, research points to the need to take into account all relevant factors, including the chemical properties of the waste, household practices and business models. We can apply what we know about apartment living to design better apartments and retrofit existing ones to reduce the waste they produce and manage it better.
With millions of Australians now living in apartments, we can’t keep putting their waste in the too hard basket.
- Waste management
- Recycled plastics
- apartment living
- Waste crisis
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Leaked audio reveals US rail workers were told to skip inspections as Ohio crash prompts scrutiny to industry
Exclusive: employee says manager told her to stop marking cars for repair, as Ohio derailment brings hard look at industry’s record of blocking safety rules
In leaked audio heard by the Guardian, a manager for one of the US’s largest rail companies can be heard explaining to a former carman that they should stop tagging railcars for broken bearings. The manager says doing so delays other cargo.
The disclosure comes as federal agencies investigate the derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. A wheel-bearing failure was cited as the cause of the crash in a preliminary report released by the National Transportation Safety Board.
In late 2016, Stephanie Griffin, a former Union Pacific carman, went to her manager with concerns that she was getting pushback for tagging – or reporting for repair – railcars. Her manager told her it was OK to skip inspections.
Griffin asked if the manager could put that in writing. “That’s weird,” said the manager. “We have 56 other people who are not bad-ordering stuff out there. You’re definitely not going to get in trouble for it.”
Griffin said: “He refused to bad-order [mark for repair] cars for bad wheel bearings. My boss took issue with it because it increased our dwell time. When that happened, corporate offices would start berating management to release the cars.”
Dwell time refers to the time a train spends at a scheduled stop without moving. “It’s very obvious that management is not concerned with public safety, and only concerned with making their numbers look good,” Griffin said.
Griffin also claimed she and other workers did not receive any formal training to inspect and repair railcars, and were left to learn from an older worker and figure the rest out from American Association of Railroads and Federal Railroad Administration handbooks. Griffin suggested all major railroad carriers operate similarly.
As part of her job at the railyard, Griffin was to inspect all railcars on inbound journeys for defects and put a tag on them to send the cars to the railroad yard repair shop. On outbound journeys, workers were supposed to check the cars’ air brakes and make a final inspection. But, she said, management, at the behest of corporate, undermined workers’ effectiveness on the job.
She said: “The regulation at the time stated that a wheel bearing was bad when it had ‘visible seepage’. But that was very vague, and the bosses used that vagueness to their advantage. For me, it was whenever oil was visible on the bearing. For my bosses, they wanted actual droplets and proof it would leak on the ground.
“Most railroad workers are fighting against an entire system that only exists as a money-making apparatus to the wealthy. Those trains run through our towns, but they do not run next to rich folks’ homes, nor next to our politicians’ homes. This is a top-down problem.”
A spokesperson for Union Pacific said in an email: “Nothing is more important than the safety of Union Pacific employees and the communities we serve. Union Pacific does not have the alleged recording and cannot comment on its authenticity.”
It added: “Employees are expected and encouraged to report concerns, and have a number of avenues to do so, including a 24/7 anonymous hotline and they are firmly protected from retaliation.”
The East Palestine derailment has prompted a wave of scrutiny into the railroad industry’s record of deregulation and blocking safety rules.
Train-brake rules were rolled back under the Trump administration and have not been restored; hazardous material regulations were watered down at the behest of the railroad industry; and railroad workers have been decrying the safety impacts incited by years of staffing cuts, poor working conditions and neglect by railroad corporations in favor of Wall Street investors .
The rate of train derailments has increased over the past decade, with two derailments per every 1m miles traveled on the railroads, compared to 1.71 derailments in 2013. There were 818 derailments reported in 2022, with 447 train cars carrying hazardous materials either damaged or derailed.
“The railroads have opposed any government regulation on train length; they have sought waivers to eliminate having trained inspectors monitor railcars; and they have pushed back on the train crew staffing rule .” said Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (Blet) national president Eddie Hall in a statement after the NTSB preliminary report on the East Palestine derailment.
“The railroads and their trade association the Association of American Railroads (AAR) employ armies of lobbyists on Capitol Hill who are there not to promote safety regulations but to slow the implementation of federal safety regulations – or attempt to eliminate them altogether.”
Edward Wytkind, who served as president of the Transportation Trades Department (TTD) at the AFL-CIO, which represents the unions in the railroad industry, said that throughout his 25 years at the TTD, the railroad industry blocked all attempts to pass legislation or advance regulation on safety.
“From attempts to address worker fatigue, lack of coherent mandatory safety plans, increasing transparency to the public and first responders about what trains are carrying, the dangers of such long trains, or establishing floors for minimum train crew, the railroads blocked everything,” said Wytkind.
“It took a horrific derailment in Ohio that is now raising major public health alarms to get the public to understand this is a very important industry. Obviously our economy depends on it, but it’s also a dangerous industry that needs to be regulated.”
A signal maintainer on the railroads who requested to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation said that in recent years staff has been cut and the region signal maintainers are forced to cover has been extended as a result of “precision scheduled railroading”, a cost-cutting system that has resulted in class 1 railroads cutting their workforce by 30% since 2016.
“We’ve lost a signal maintainer, relief maintainer, and they’ve extended from 80 miles to over 100 miles of tracks,” they said. “We’re overworked. They keep adding more tasks for us to do and cover and it’s getting to where all we’re doing is just testing and not doing much maintenance any more.”
They said they have worked hundreds of hours of overtime so far this year because of short staffing and the high workloads, and this has created safety concerns, because there is no time to keep up with the workloads or properly train newer employees.
“There’s a big opportunity to miss and overlook things. There is a big opportunity for something to fail. Missed switches, something with crossings being overlooked … could cause train derailments. Or people could get hit at railroad crossings,” the employee added.
“There could be many opportunities for catastrophic failure between train departments that are shorthanded, maintenance workers that are shorthanded and overworked, the signal department that’s overworked and understaffed.
“It’s just an opportunity for a big failure to happen. We don’t have as many eyes or as many hands on like we used to.”
Jeff Kurtz, a retired locomotive engineer of 40 years in Iowa, said the railroad industry talking points on safety in response to the East Palestine derailment have been misleading, as the industry has trended toward adding several more railcars to trains, making them much longer, which can make derailments more damaging when they do occur. This trend has been pursued to further cut costs and increase efficiency, despite safety concerns.
“What most people aren’t talking about that would have either mitigated a lot of the damage, and it may have prevented the derailment, is reducing the size of these trains,” said Kurtz. “Because the in-train forces are increased exponentially when a train’s length and weight is increased, the chance of derailments and the increase in damage is exponentially increased.”
The size of the train that derailed in East Palestine, Ohio was 150 cars, more than twice the average length of trains operated by major railroads from 2008 to 2017. There is currently no limit imposed by the Federal Railroad Administration on train length. The industry has dismissed safety concerns on the issue.
“A derailment with a 5,000-ton train with [a small amount of] hazardous material is a whole different animal than a derailment of an 18,000-ton train loaded with hazardous material. Plus, a long, heavy train is easier to derail,” Kurtz added.
“Secretary [Pete] Buttigieg said that there are about 1,000 derailments a year. If we let the carriers run these monster trains loaded with hazardous material, cut the number of derailments to 300 a year, but blow up a town or city every other year: is that acceptable?”
- Ohio train derailment
- Rail transport
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I'm a Gen X working mom who tried TikTok's 'Bare Minimum Monday' trend, and it's harder than it looks
- "Bare Minimum Monday" is the latest TikTok trend to slink into the workplace.
- The idea is to eliminate the "Sunday scaries" and lower stress by taking it easy on Mondays.
- For Insider's Rebecca Knight, a middle-aged mom, that's easier said than done.
When I first heard about "Bare Minimum Monday," the latest TikTok trend to slink into the workplace, I thought it was ridiculous .
Marisa Jo Mayes, the millennial startup founder who sparked the viral sensation , promotes it as a way to prioritize self-care and " reject hustle culture ." Her TikTok posts offer glimpses of how she takes it easy on Mondays by, for instance, curling her hair, making elaborate iced coffees, and playing a variation of mini Boggle. It all looked a bit precious and entitled.
Besides, how does one blow off work for an entire day, week after week? It seems brazen , even in the era of "quiet quitting ." As a " work hard, play hard" Gen Xer , that's not how I'm wired.
Part of me might have been a little jealous of ol' Mayes. Renouncing my start-of-the-week to-do list sounded dreamy. As a 40-something working mom of two school-age kids, I'm conditioned to neurotically squeeze out productivity from every working hour. Allotting just the right amount of time to each meeting and task, while leaving room for the afternoon carpool, dinner prep, and homework help, is my own "self-care priority."
To be clear: I'm not someone who lives to work. I like what I do, but I value my downtime. But I'm busy, so when it's time to work, I work. Otherwise I can't get it all done.
But as Bare Minimum Monday gathered steam and media mentions , my editor suggested I give it a try and then write about it — you know, for work . In the sacred name of Hunter S. Thompson , I accepted the assignment. I soon found out that Bare Minimum Monday was harder than it looked.
DIY Bare Minimum Monday
Mayes, a startup founder, once suffered from debilitating " Sunday scaries ," she told Insider's Sarah Jackson .
But after she gave herself "permission to do the absolute bare minimum for work" on Mondays, "it was like some magic spell came over" her, she said.
For working parents, the Sunday scaries are no joke . They relate to our jobs, sure, but also to the crush of the school week and our kids' sports and extracurricular activities, as well as the schedule of our partner, if we have one.
Without a relatively productive Monday, the rest of my workweek — and life — turns fubar.
That helps explain why for me, Bare Minimum Monday started on Sunday afternoon. I'd ordinarily spend it zombie-scrolling Page Six and playing word games on my phone. But I needed to plan ahead for my day of laborless lassitude.
One of the biggest workday pressures for parents is dinner. This Monday happened to be one of the few weeknights my family would eat together, and I didn't take that programming miracle for granted.
So on Sunday evening, my husband and I poured ourselves some wine and whipped up a batch of soup for Monday night's meal. Mind you, we simultaneously made that night's dinner, which was extra work, but it was the weekend and our moods were lighter. Plus, we used our immersion blender , which we love. We're middle-aged; we can't help it.
Sunday scaries? Not with Monday's dinner already made.
Removing unnecessary pressure and unrealistic expectations
Bare Minimum Monday is not so much a practice as it is a mindset.
"For anyone interested in trying it, pay attention to where you're putting unnecessary pressure on yourself or setting unrealistic expectations," Mayes told Insider .
On Mondays, she eliminates meetings, limits her technology use, and removes tasks that aren't urgent from her to-do list, instead aiming to accomplish two to three important ones.
I could've convinced my editor that I needed to miss our daily meeting for journalism's sake. But I was determined to do a realistic version of Bare Minimum Monday. Most working stiffs can't abandon all meetings for their well-being. So I attended that one, plus a couple of others on my calendar.
Next, I figured out my all-important tasks for the day: reaching out to sources for a story idea and making an outline for an upcoming LinkedIn live event. I checked off both by lunchtime. Time to relax!
Not doing work at work is hard
Having an amorphous blob of an afternoon should have been liberating, but, I admit, I found it stressful.
You see, Gen Xers, like me, tend to take a puritanical approach to our jobs and treat our organizations as though we're indentured servants. I'm not saying this is healthy, of course. Our first bosses were baby boomers who bred in us a need to be devoted to our employers. It's not that we're especially ambitious; it's how we were trained.
Turns out, not working when you're supposed to be working is difficult. I went for a walk in my neighborhood. I listened to a podcast. I picked up a crusty baguette to pair with the soup. It was nice, but I felt guilty.
When I returned home, I was adrift. Thinking about my week gave me anxiety: articles I needed to write, interviews I needed to schedule, Daughter One's upcoming soccer tournament (did her new shin guards arrive?), Daughter Two's upcoming school play (did I say I'd help with the bake sale?), my husband's weeklong work trip (did he dole out his share of the carpool?). My skin started to itch.
I checked my email on impulse, and my queries from the morning yielded a promising lead. Did I have time to hop on a quick call to discuss? You bet!
I cracked open my laptop to reply just as my teenager arrived home from practice.
"I thought this was supposed to be 'Bare Minimum Monday,'" she said, deadpan.
I'd told her about my experiment the night before at dinner. She rarely registers things about my life — she's a teenager, after all, and self-absorption is her MO. But perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised that my resident TikTok aficionado remembered that I was trying this trend — or in her mind, trying to be cool.
"It is," I said. "I just have to do this one little email."
My daughter shot me a look of withering contempt, the way only a teenage girl can.
I sighed remembering Mayes' gentle admonitions. I thought: "What can I choose not to care about today? Where can I choose to be nicer to myself?"
I went to the fridge and got out the Tupperware of soup. The email could wait until tomorrow.
Creepy Conspiratorial Globalists Were Behind Covid Lockdowns, UK Government Chats Show
*** This post is too long for email *** — Please click on the title to read the online version.
Also, this article took many hours to write. If you like it, I suggest upgrading to a paid subscription .
Eugyppius is one of my favorite substack authors. I agreed with many of his past thoughts regarding Covid, society, and science.
However, I cannot agree with his post above . I want to put forth my reasoning that will arrive at the opposite conclusion, that is:
The UK government was reluctant to press on with lockdowns but was always pushed into lockdowns by powerful outside forces .
Those forces were paid and coordinated by aptly named (by eugyppius) “ creepy conspiratorial globalists,” such as Bill Gates, his foundation, and the World Economic Forum .
The Purpose of Lockdowns Was to Keep People Miserable Until They Got Vaccinated .
The rest of my article is intentionally written in a non-judgemental tone. I will not speak of “evil plans,” “depopulation,” and other such concepts.
I hope to demonstrate that outside private forces influenced the UK government (and other governments) to implement their pandemic plan.
The WEF’s and Bill Gates’ Pandemic Plans
Bill Gates, as well as the World Economic Forum, had a pandemic plan . How do we know? Very simple, their plan was public . Here’s the video from the WEF where Bill Gates explains their plan! The key screenshots are shown, with timestamps added for your convenience:
The plan was quite simple:
Lock down every state (and every country)
Develop the COVID vaccine
Only after the vaccine is given can people get back to work
The plan was broadly in place before the official beginning of the pandemic. Event 201 , held on Oct 12, 2019, and sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Economic Forum, issued recommendations with similar suggestions.
Event 201’s recommendations mention (1) political decisions to slow or stop the movement of people and goods, a.k.a lockdowns , (2) vaccines, and (3) public-private cooperation .
Holding Governments Hostage Through “Public-Private Cooperation”
Underlined in blue in the picture (3) above is public-private cooperation . It is a relatively new concept.
In the past , sovereign governments were elected by voters and decided on policies to please domestic voters or, at most, domestic businesses.
In the last few decades , a new concept of global stakeholders has evolved. Those are large international businesses or private forums, not selected via any electoral process but possessing outsized influence on previously sovereign governments. Examples of “global business leaders” mentioned in the quote (3) are Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Economic Forum, Google, Facebook, and other large extraterritorial entities.
These unelected stakeholders played a large role during the pandemic, steering governments into adopting lockdowns.
Eugyppius mentions how Boris Johnson’s desire to lift the lockdowns was not supported by public opinion .
Boris Johnson considered lifting lockdown restrictions early but decided against it after being told that doing so would be “ too far ahead of public opinion ”.
But what formed that “public opinion”?
Global Social Network Stakeholders Blocked Undesirable Opposition
Global stakeholders such as Google and Facebook banned anti-lockdown protests and pages , so opponents of lockdowns could not voice their opposition:
Such bans, no doubt, contributed to “public opinion” steered firmly in support of lockdowns.
Bill Gates Sponsored the Media
The media, busy forming “public opinion,” was generously sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation . The BMGF gave $319 million to a variety of news media organizations. The UK media sponsored by Bill Gates includes:
The Daily Telegraph – $3,446,801
The Guardian (including TheGuardian.org )- $12,951,391
Rockhopper Productions (U.K.) – $2,480,392
Financial Times – $2,309,845
Samples from the above publications cheering for lockdowns are shown below.
Pandemic Modeling with an Agenda
The UK government, during the pandemic, was using “pandemic models” that intentionally overstated projected deaths , as this Pandemic Files story shows:
Were the modelers unintentionally overstating predicted deaths? Was that just a bunch of academics overreacting?
It was not.
The main institutions developing “pandemic models” were Johns Hopkins and Imperial College. Johns Hopkins was a major pandemic preparedness player that sponsored the above-mentioned Event 201 and received $1,048,972,282 from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Imperial College , based in the UK, received $318,891,807 from Bill Gates. I will skip the rest of them to keep the size of my post manageable.
The excessive death predictions produced by modelers were a part of the plan of those who sponsored them. The models helped to keep lockdowns and human misery in place until rushed “vaccines” were ready to be administered.
Governments Were Kept in Place
Not all governments marched in lockstep with the plans of Bill Gates, the World Economic Forum, and other “global stakeholders.” Tanzania’s president Magufuli refused to follow pandemic guidelines.
Bill Gates-sponsored The Guardian published an editorial that “it is time for Africa to Rein In Tanzania’s anti-vaxxer President.”
A month later, on March 17, Magufuli was dead under suspicious circumstances.
In the UK, the pro-lockdown press constantly vilified Boris Johnson.
WEF Members Exerted Pressure on Boris Johnson
A WEF Member, Nicola Sturgeon , obnoxiously forced Boris Johnson into mandating masks in schools despite no scientific evidence for doing so:
A WEF member Rishi Sunak schemed to oust Johnson’s adviser Dominic Cummings who was skeptical of lockdowns and flouted lockdown rules :
The Plan Worked
Bill Gates, the World Economic Forum, Facebook, and other “creepy globalist conspirators” succeeded brilliantly. The lockdowns were mostly maintained in various countries until vaccines could be given to people.
You know the rest of the story. The vaccines did not stop the pandemic. Lockdowns continued for a bit longer and were used as a pretext to force reluctant people to vaccinate. Vaccines would “stop transmission,” we were told.
So, people dutifully lined up to get vaccinated. They were mad at the ignorant unvaccinated people who refused to “listen to science.” Terry Register was one of the thousands of such people. He got vaccinated and boosted and proudly announced that on social media by displaying his “I got my Covid booster” sticker.
He leaves behind two young adopted sons.
While most people are luckily still with us, all of them were misled by “global stakeholders,” news media sponsored by Bill Gates, and BMGF-paid modelers whose false predictions influenced government policies.
Terry Register was a good man. He did his part to save humanity. It is not Terry’s fault that things did not work out, and he became a number in the excess mortality statistics.
Were the Governments “Just Dumb,” or Did They Fall Victim to Shadowy Influence?
Eugyppius says eloquently:
It always irritates some people when I say this, but it’s just the truth: The people responsible for the last three years of economic destruction, psychological injury and mass pharmaceutical experimentation are callous and evil, but they’re also just really dumb . None of this meant anything, none of this was for anything, and that’s the bitterest pill of all. Every last person in these text messages, from Johnson to Hancock to other ministers to random experts and everyone else, has absolutely no idea what they’re doing or what the purposes of their restrictions even are.
I agree with Eugyppius that the people in governments, such as Matt Hancock or Boris Johnson, who implemented useless lockdowns and forced people to take unproven vaccines, are dumb.
I disagree with Eugyppius’s saying that the lock-step implementation of lockdowns in all countries was an accident and a “fruit of shallow low-wattage government functionaries who have a planning horizon extending no more than two weeks.”
Instead, the events of 2020 were planned and implemented in advance by ruthless Covid Globalists, who implemented their plans via corrupt media that they paid off, social media giants suppressing discussions, and hijacked science and pandemic modeling to further their plans.
Politico Article
I am not the only person who thinks Bill Gates and his co-conspirators hijacked the pandemic. Politico published a brilliant article about how Bill Gates took over the global Covid response .
If you do not believe me, read the Politico article!
Voice Your Opinion
I invite everyone to DEBATE my post. Express your opinion in the comments. Tell us what you think about the lockdowns:
Were they a result of local governments’ stupidity that accidentally manifested itself in perfect lock-step in most first-world countries, or
Were lockdowns a result of “creepy conspiratorial globalists” executing well-thought-out pandemic plans, resulting in governments caving to their pressure?
Dissent and disagreement are perfectly acceptable on my substack. Comment away!
(and upgrade to paid subscription if you liked this post, which took a lot of work to write)
Subscribe now
Click this link for the original source of this article. Author: Igor Chudov
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Florida Republicans want bloggers who write about DeSantis to register with the state
‘it’s hard to imagine a proposal that would be more violative of the first amendment. we don’t register journalists. people who write cannot be forced to register’, article bookmarked.
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A Florida bill would require bloggers who write about Republican governor Ron DeSantis to register with the state.
The bill has been proposed by GOP state senator Jason Brodeur and would also apply to Mr DeSantis’s cabinet and state legislators.
It would require the bloggers to disclose who pays them and how much for posts on certain elected officials.
“If a blogger posts to a blog about an elected state officer and receives, or will receive, compensation for that post, the blogger must register” within five days, the bill states.
It defines “elected state officer” as “the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, a Cabinet officer, or any member of the Legislature.”
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A failure to register would cost the blogger a fine of $25 per day, up to $2,500 per article, according to WFLA .
Mr Brodeur told the Florida Politics website that he viewed bloggers as “lobbyists who write instead of talk” and they should be treated the same way.
Mr DeSantis’s office said on Friday that the governor, who is expected to take on Donald Trump for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, would take a look at the proposed bill.
“As usual, the governor will consider the merits of a bill in final form if and when it passes the legislature,” press secretary, Bryan Griffin, told NBC News .
Ron Kuby, a First Amendment lawyer in New York, told NBC News that such a bill would be easily defeated in court.
“It’s hard to imagine a proposal that would be more violative of the First Amendment,” said Mr Kuby. “We don’t register journalists. People who write cannot be forced to register.”
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With a little practice, organizing your material to fit this formula can become second nature. Method 1 Structuring Your Story Download Article 1 Organize your material according to the "inverted pyramid." Assume that your reader will quit reading before they reach the end of your story.
In order to write a great news article, you need to know exactly who you are writing for. Your audience will dictate the voice and tone of your article and help you to know what you should include. Ask yourself the "5 W's" again, but this time in relation to your audience.
The general rules for writing a news article involve accuracy and integrity. Report on the details of a story in a factual, unbiased, and straightforward way. When writing a news article, do not editorialize or sensationalize the information, and keep your content free of your opinion. Your writing, at its best. Get Grammarly It's free
Hard news articles are written so the the reader can stop reading at any time, and still come away with the whole story. This is very different from an essay, which presumes that the audience will stick around to the end, and can therefore build to a finish. There is no need to put a "conclusion" on a news story.
It is the puzzle piece on which the rest of the story depends. To that end, please write your lead first — don't undermine it by going back and thinking of one to slap on after you've finished writing the rest of the story. Coming up with a good lead is hard. Even the most experienced and distinguished writers know this.
Write in hard news style. You don't want to use overly descriptive language when writing a news report. Just stick to the facts and keep the sentences short and concise. Use active language and strong verbs. Speak in past tense when writing a news report.
Tips on How to Structure a Hard News Story | by Ellie Hudson | Medium 500 Apologies, but something went wrong on our end. Refresh the page, check Medium 's site status, or find something...
Generally speaking, the lede, or introduction to the story, should be a single sentence of 35 to 45 words that summarizes the main points of the story, not a seven-sentence monstrosity that looks like it's out of a Jane Austen novel. The lede should summarize the story from start to finish.
Choose a story that appeals to you personally. While a traditional news story focuses on hard facts and data, a human interest story focuses on individual people or events and the emotion tied to them. As you look for a topic, choose something that you're passionate about.
Hard news stories are usually front-page articles on newspapers or the first story in a news broadcast. Journalists use the inverted pyramid method to write hard news stories, which provides the most important details at the beginning of the story and adds less-pertinent facts towards the middle and end of the story. ADVERTISEMENT
Writing How to Write a Good Article—Quickly Written by MasterClass Last updated: Sep 3, 2021 • 3 min read Bloggers, freelance writers, copywriters, and other content creators are often faced with a seemingly impossible task: producing a great article under a tight deadline.
Parts of a News Article Before you write your first draft, you should be aware of the parts that make up a news story: Headline or title The headline of your article should be catchy and to the point. You should punctuate your title using Associated Press style guidelines unless your publication specifies something else.
About Ledes. The introduction to a news article is called the 'lede' and is usually in the first paragraph as in an essay. The 'lede' is a deliberate misspelling of 'lead' to prevent confusion in the days when printing was done with lead type. The lede not only tells what the story is about, it also invites the reader to read further.
Hard news is written in a very specific style, sticking strictly to the facts and avoiding poetic language or metaphor. Soft news allows the writer more room for creativity. Start by asking yourself what someone with no knowledge about your topic needs to know, and be certain to include that information.
A good lede must accomplish three specific things: Give readers the main points of the story Get readers interested in reading the story Accomplish both of these in as few words as possible Typically, editors want ledes to be no longer than 35 to 40 words. Why so short?
News writing format Inverted Pyramid is considered as the most popular news writing format across the globe. According to this format, a news starts with the lede and then presents facts in the descending order of importance. Source: Pressbooks The Lede: The Lede (aka The Lead) is the first paragraph of your news story.
Headlines should be clear and specific, telling the reader what the story is about, and be interesting enough to draw them into reading the article. 5-10 words at the most should be accurate and specific City Council to Cut Taxes doesn't mean the same thing as City Council to Cut Budget
Activity 3. Now write your newspaper article. Remember to: Include a headline at the top of your article. Make it short and snappy. You could even use alliteration. Use your planning sheet to help ...
Writing Your News Article. There are six parts to any news article which we have already mentioned. Leave the header, sub-header, and byline until the end. Start with the lead. This is the opening paragraph that provides all of the important details the reader must know to understand the rest of the article.
Writing a Newspaper Headline. 1. Identify the key terms in the article to create the headline. Read the article in full and make note of the details in the first paragraph of the article. The key details of the story should be in the first one to three sentences of the article, so look for the key terms in these lines.
With millions of Australians now living in apartments, we can't keep putting their waste in the too hard basket. Recycling. Food waste. Rubbish. Apartments. Waste management. Zero waste ...
Griffin asked if the manager could put that in writing. "That's weird," said the manager. "We have 56 other people who are not bad-ordering stuff out there.
An envelope. It indicates the ability to send an email. An curved arrow pointing right. When I first heard about "Bare Minimum Monday," the latest TikTok trend to slink into the workplace, I ...
Event 201, held on Oct 12, 2019, and sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Economic Forum, issued recommendations with similar suggestions. Event 201's recommendations mention (1) political decisions to slow or stop the movement of people and goods, a.k.a lockdowns, (2) vaccines, and (3) public-private cooperation.
People who write cannot be forced to register' 'It's hard to imagine a proposal that would be more violative of the First Amendment. We don't register journalists.
Let your team members know how much they are valued and appreciated with these employee appreciation quotes—perfect for Employee Appreciation Day. Say "thank you" for their hard work.