The News Lead Capturing your audience with the most essential information first.

What is a news lead? A lead is the opening to your news story The lead contains the most important information of the story The reader should be able to know the basic information about the story by just reading the lead! The lead should hook the readers and make them interested in the story Many readers don’t bother reading past the lead, so this is why you want to grab their attention right away

The Most Important Facts The 5 Ws and the H Who – Who the story is about? What – What the story is about? Where – Where does the story takes place? When – When did the story happen? Why – Why is this happening? How – How is this happening?

What is in a lead? The lead will contain the MOST IMPORTANT details of the story: Who What Where When Leave the why and the how for later on in the story The who, what, where, and when are simple, yet vital, story details that do not need much explanation.

Info to include AFTER the lead Secondary important information: Why How The why and the how provide readers with important information, but these details might take more words to describe accurately and effectively. Leave the why and the how for the paragraph after the lead.

What does this look like? – The Inverted Pyramid Write the lead first: who, what, where, when Then add in the supporting details that are still important to the story: why and how Finish your news story by adding in quotes and other important facts and details. Finish your story with the least important information at the bottom

Let’s Take a Look! (Refer to the handout from the LA Times) L.A. Unified finally hiring teachers again Who: What: Where: When:

Let’s Take a Look! L.A. Unified finally hiring teachers again Who: L.A. Unified School District What: Hiring new teachers Where: Los Angeles When: school year

L.A. Unified finally hiring teachers again By Howard Blume After an extended period of layoffs and hiring freezes, the Los Angeles Unified School District has resumed bringing on new teachers, while also being more selective about their quality than in the past. The nation's second-largest school system forecasts hiring 1,333 instructors for next year; it hired 718 for the current year. The total teaching force numbers about 26,000. The turnaround represents the first significant positive change in the employment climate since 2007; each year since, the district had faced significant budget cuts — from an economic recession, a drop in federal funding and declining enrollment. Help has come from an improving economy, a voter-approved tax increase, and, perhaps most importantly, a demand for teachers that is finally outstripping the supply.

News Story Lead Assignment Find five news stories (from the Internet or from print media sources) Print out the story or cut it out and glue it to a piece of paper. Read the entire article. Write down the story’s lead in its entirety Write down the WHO, WHAT, WHERE, and WHEN

Example: L.A. Unified finally hiring teachers again L.A. Unified finally hiring teachers again Lead: After an extended period of layoffs and hiring freezes, the Los Angeles Unified School District has resumed bringing on new teachers, while also being more selective about their quality than in the past. Who: L.A. Unified School District What: Hiring new teachers Where: Los Angeles When: school year