The Pub Hub

• Always write the focus or nut graph first. If you don’t have a clear idea of what they story is about, you haven’t done enough reporting and you certainly can’t write a good lead.
• Be specific.
• Focus on the content that’s newsworthy, not context of the 5Ws. First tell us what the person said, not when and where he said it. Don’t forget the audience.
• Check the 5 W’s & H. Are they all there? Are they in the correct (inverted pyramid) order?
• Remember, although the lead is the first thing your audience will read, it may be the last thing you write. Be flexible with your writing process.
• Try a creative lead if the story needs it. What sounds like a dull topic for an article can jump off the page to readers and draw them in if the lead is witty or sharp.

Lead sentence format
Subject-Active verb-Object of the verb
Who, what, when, where
Why and how might come later

Content
One sentence, two or three becomes wordy and confusing.
It’s not a run-on, just packed with info
Provide general information in lead
Save background for later
Find the unusual in leads, changes up how formulaic they can become

Examples
Two-sentence lead when compelling
1. A growing number of U.S. troops whose body armor helped them survive bomb and rocket attacks are suffering brain damage as a result of the blasts. It’s a type of injury some military doctors say has become the signature would of the Iraq War.

2. Two women robbed a shopper in a local supermarket Tuesday. One woman distracted the shopper, and the second woman grabbed her purse, which contained about $50.

Revised: Two women stole a purse containing $50 from a shopper in a local supermarket Tuesday.

Word Count
Shoot for 18-20 word leads, don’t sweat around 30
The Washington Post 39
Los Angeles Times 34.6
The New York Times 33
United Press International 30.5
The Associated Press 30
Scripps Howard News Service 25.5

The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce announced the creation of the ‘Friends of the Walk of Fame’ initiative on Tuesday to restore parts of the damaged Walk in time for its 50th anniversary in 2010. — 34

Kanye West's notoriously fickle temper boiled over Thursday, resulting in his arrest for apparently helping smash a paparazzo's camera on the floor at Los Angeles International Airport. — 27

SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin brushed off concerns on Thursday over steep falls in Russia's stock market and billions of dollars of withdrawn foreign investment, saying the economy was well placed to cope. — 32

New research recently released by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has discovered that the rate of HIV infections per year is 45 percent higher than previously thought. — 30

Avoid passive voice
No “is,” “are, “was,” “were”
Change to “who” did “what” to “who”

Avoid opinion
People: alert, heroic or quick-thinking
Descriptions: interesting or startling
Cautious use: “very,” “but,” “however,” “yet”
If you can’t prove it, “Allegedly”

Leads Checklist
1. Be specific rather than vague and abstract
2. Avoid stating the obvious or the negative
3. Emphasize the story’s most unusual or unexpected developments
4. Emphasize the story’s most interesting and important developments
5. Emphasize the story’s magnitude and its impact on its participants and readers
6. Use complete sentences, the proper tense and all the necessary articles—“a,” “an” and “the.”
7. Be concise. If a lead exceeds three typed lines, examine it for wordiness, repetition or unnecessary details and rewriter it to eliminate the problems.
8. Avoid writing a label lead that reports the story’s topic but not what was said or done about it
9. Begin leads with the news—the main point of the story—not the attribution or the time and place the events occurred
10. Use relatively simple sentences and avoid beginning lead with a long phrase or clause
11. Use strong, active and descriptive verbs rather than passive ones
12. Avoid using unfamiliar names. Any names that require lengthy identification should be reported in a later paragraph.
13. Attribute any quotation or statement of opinion appearing in the lead
14. Localize the lead, and emphasize the latest developments, preferable what happened today or yesterday.
15. Eliminate statements of opinion, including one-word labels such as “interesting” and “alert”
16. Remember the readers. Write a lead that is clear, concise and interesting and that emphasizes the details most likely to affect and interest readers.
17. Read the lead aloud to be certain that it is clear, concise and easy to understand