David Crouch

• Headline: no more than 62 characters • Theme: what and why (or sometimes the “what and so what”) • Details: information that backs up the theme or more essential facts (where, when, why etc) • Quotation: a statement from an authoritative source • Nutshell paragraph: what’s at stake? why should people care about this … Read more

First, decide: •Who is your news audience? •Why might they be interested in this? •What, therefore, is the most important news fact? •What, therefore, are the important secondary facts?  Then: •Write the headline first •Make sure the 5 Ws are in the first one or two paragraphs •Follow the inverted pyramid news writing structure, so … Read more

1. What are you presenting that is new, original, fresh, that nobody knew before? 2. Are you sure it is new? (Google!) 3. Can you write a Bloomberg 4-paragraph lead? If not, why not? 4. What is your main factual claim in a single sentence? (your “top line” – although not always your intro/ first … Read more