Writing: The Lead

1. Writing: The Lead 2008 ASNE Reynolds High School Journalism Institute - Arizona State University Steve Elliott: steve.elliott@asu.edu Director, Cronkite News Service and Professor of Practice

2. The All-Important Lead • Leads must (true or false): • Sum up the story in one paragraph. • Always contain attribution. • Run no longer than 30 words. The Truth: There are no hard-and-fast rules on how a lead should be structured, though you are wise to follow general guidelines.

3. The All-Important Lead KIEV, Ukraine (AP) _ A Russian passenger jet carrying at least 170 people, including 45 children, crashed Tuesday in eastern Ukraine after sending a distress signal, killing all aboard, authorities said. 27 words

4. The All-Important Lead NEW YORK (AP) _ That’s what some people worry will happen when a pen with erasable ink hits stores Friday. 0 words

5. The All-Important Lead • Concise • Write as if each word costs you $20 • In general, 25 words or less works best • After 25 words, $100 per word • Clear • Short words, sentences, active voice, strong verbs • Rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. • Decipher bureaucratic language, stats and vagueness • Colorful • AP’s tip: What is different about this story?

6. The All-Important Lead • Direct / Hard News (“Tell me the news.”) • Summary • Analysis • Delayed (“Tell me a story.”) • Anecdotal ( “Narrative Lead”) • Left-Hook Lead ( “Contrast Lead”) • Staccato Lead • Direct Address • Question • Quote

7. Summary Lead MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) – A woman who spent nearly 60 years of her life in an iron lung after being diagnosed with polio as a child died Wednesday after a power failure shut down the machine that kept her breathing, her family said. • Advantages of Summary Lead • Gets news out there right away. • Feeds into inverted pyramid structure. • Helps speed writing - Most breaking news stories have summary leads. • Disadvantages of Summary Lead • Doesn’t have much of a shelf life. • Not much flexibility to illustrate impact through people.

8. Anecdotal Lead PHOENIX _ A federal jury on Wednesday convicted Gov. Fife Symington of lying to lenders to get millions of dollars for his failing real estate ventures, making him the state's second governor to be ousted in less than a decade. (Los Angeles Times) PHOENIX (AP) _ Fife Symington's lip trembled and his voice cracked. After years of vowing to beat whatever federal prosecutors threw at him, he had lost, he was to be ousted as governor and he was almost certainly going to prison. "Every once in a great while, there is salvation in surrender," a tearful Symington said as he announced his resignation, which will take effect Friday. "I have never been one to linger and I don't intend to start now." The two-term Republican was convicted Wednesday of lying to get millions in loans to shore up his collapsing real estate empire in the 1980s, becoming the second Arizona governor in a decade to be forced from office by scandal.

9. Anecdotal Lead McClatchy Newspapers KABUL, Afghanistan _ American soldiers herded the detainees into holding pens of razor-sharp concertina wire, the kind that's used to corral livestock. The guards kicked, kneed and punched many of the men until they collapsed in pain. U.S. troops shackled and dragged other detainees to small isolation rooms, then hung them by their wrists from chains dangling from the wire mesh ceiling. Former guards and detainees whom McClatchy interviewed said Bagram was a center of systematic brutality for at least 20 months, starting in late 2001. Yet the soldiers responsible have escaped serious punishment.

10. Anecdotal Lead OAKVILLE, Iowa (AP) _ When the water rose around his family's hog farm, 15-year-old Logan Lanz tried to get their 800 piglets out of harm's way. Instead he found himself wading through floodwater choked with the animals' bodies. "We only got seven of them out," he said on Monday. Most of the farm's 350 sows also were lost Sunday to the floodwaters, now filthy brown with pig waste, diesel fuel, farm chemicals and who knows what else. Officials in the many Iowa towns hit by flooding warned people to stay out of the water, but in the town of Oakville, pig waste and diesel fuel combined to create a stench that was warning enough. "You can hardly stand it," Logan's 71-year-old grandfather, Bob Lanz, said as he motored through in a 22-foot aluminum flatboat. "It's strong."

11. Anecdotal Lead • Advantages of Anecdotal Lead • Good way to illustrate impact. • Can engage reader emotionally. • Disadvantages of Anecdotal Lead • Difficult to write and report. • - Anecdote has to clearly illustrate point of story. • Takes real estate to get to the point. • Natural tendency to over-write these.

12. Left-Hook / Contrast Lead The New York Times In the photograph, the model is shown rising out of a bubble bath, suds dripping from her body. Her tight panties and skimpy top are soaked and revealing. She gazes at the viewer, her face showing a wisp of a smile that seems to have been coaxed from off-camera. In just over seven months, the model has become an online phenomenon. She has thousands of fans from around the world, membership lists show, who pay as much as $30 a month to see images of her. According to the posted schedule, new photographs of her – many clearly intended to be erotic, all supposedly taken that week – are posted online every Friday for her growing legions of admirers. The model’s online name is Sparkle. She is – at most – 9 years old.

13. Left-Hook / Contrast Lead • Advantages of Left Hook / Contrast Lead • Engages reader powerfully. • A good way to illustrate impact through people. • Disadvantages of Left Hook / Contrast Lead • It’s difficult to do right. • - When done poorly, simply confuses reader. • Usually makes even more real estate to get to the point.

14. Staccato Lead Cotton candy. Corn dogs. Deep-fried Twinkies. Gut-twisting rides. The Texas State Fair promises fun for all ages, but it can tough on a child’s tummy if parents don’t watch out. • Advantages of Staccato Lead • Short bursts create engaging mental images. • Poor-man’s anecdotal lead; not as difficult. • Doesn’t take as long to write. • - Some breaking news stories use staccato leads. • Disadvantages of Staccato Lead • Only as good as material in your notebook. • - Garbage in, garbage out. • Can lead to embarrassing non-sequiturs.

15. Direct-Address Lead The (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger In answer to your question: No, venomous snakes are not allowed on airplanes. Everything else – from lemurs to lizards to lion cubs – may be traveling in the belly of your next flight. What, you thought they drove? • Advantages of Direct-Address Lead • Informal tone can engage reader. • Work on light topics, news you can use (health, finance) • Doesn’t take as long to write. • Disadvantages of Direct-Address Lead • Can come across as flip, especially topics and tragedies. • - “You won’t want to drive Interstate 10 today. Somebody died.” • It gets annoying if you do it too often.

16. Quote Lead DENVER (AP) _ “Dying is beautiful,” Lyn Helton confided to her tape recorder. “Even the first time around, at the ripe old age of 20.” She made the comments two months ago, as bone cancer sapped her strength. The young wife and mother died Sunday at Children’s Hospital, her husband, Tom, at her side. • Advantages of Quote Lead • Can work if dialog sets sense of person or moment. • Disadvantages of Quote Lead • Works very, very, very, very rarely. • Usually offers a “junior journalist” tone. • Almost always is vague and should be replaced.

17. Problem Leads ANYTOWN _ Town Manager Fred Farkle discussed the budget deficit with Town Council members Monday night at the council’s regular monthly meeting. Farkle agreed to meeting after council members raised concerns about the size of program cuts and layoffs he has recommended. But Farkle came with even more unpleasant news: The deficit is $50 million _ twice as big as he had thought. In response, he proposed doubling layoffs to 200 and cutting Anytown’s bus service. BURIED LEAD

18. Problem Leads WASHINGTON (AP) _ The Federal Trade Commission agreed Friday to allow the nation’s biggest leveraged buyout to go through, provided the two corporations involved _ which together account for one-eighth of the food sold in the nation’s supermarkets _ reduce their share of markets for ketchup, Asian foods and packaged nuts. (45 words) CLUTTER LEAD

19. Problem Leads ANYTOWN _ When it rains, it pours. Anytown faces a perfect storm of dwindling tax revenues and a bad economy, forcing it to lay off 200 employees _ twice as many as originally predicted, Town Manager Fred Farkle said Monday. ANYTOWN _ A $50 million budget deficit has Town Manager Fred Farkle on the warpath when it comes to spending. CLICHE LEAD

20. Problem Leads ANYTOWN _ Doubling layoffs and cutting the city’s bus service are what Town Manager Fred Farkle proposes doing in response to a $50 million budget deficit. SCOTTSBORO, Ala. _ Plans are being made for special entertainment at the next First Monday Trade Days slated on the First Monday weekend in September. PASSIVE LEAD

21. Problem Leads LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Reese Witherspoon has sealed another deal: her divorce from fellow actor Ryan Phillippe. TOO-CUTE-FOR-ITS-OWN-GOOD LEAD

22. Strong Leads The Washington Post, 2003 BAGHDAD _ On a cold, concrete slab, a mosque caretaker washed the body of 14-year-old Arkan Daif for the last time. With a cotton swab dipped in water, he ran his hand across Daif's olive corpse, dead for three hours but still glowing with life. He blotted the rose-red shrapnel wounds on the soft skin of Daif's right arm and right ankle with the poise of practice. Then he scrubbed his face scabbed with blood, left by a cavity torn in the back of Daif's skull. The men in the Imam Ali mosque stood somberly waiting to bury a boy who, in the words of his father, was "like a flower." Haider Kathim, the caretaker, asked: "What's the sin of the children? What have they done?"

23. Strong Leads The (Newark) Star-Ledger, 2006 A state appeals court has ruled that Marty Richards, a Broadway and movie producer, is eligible for a share of a $350 million family trust built on Band-Aids and baby powder, but the long-running inheritance dispute may not be over. The appeals court ruled last week that Richards, who produced the Oscar-winning movie "Chicago," qualifies as a "spouse" who can collect part of a charitable trust established in 1961 by J. Seward Johnson Sr.

24. Strong Leads The State Press, 2006 If you could forgo one margarita a day, and stash the cash instead, in about 40 years – with an 8 percent return – you would have about a million dollars.

25. Attribution in Leads • Attribution in Leads: • In general, at the end. • In general, focus on role rather than name. ANYTOWN _ Americans would be healthier and happier if everyone wore sandals, a noted podiatrist said Thursday. ANYTOWN _ President Bush urged Americans on Thursday to wear sandals, saying they would make people healthier and happier.