Localizing the story
One of the news elements that makes stories newsworthy --that news peg
again-- is localness. Something that happens locally or involves a local
person is more likely to be newsworthy for a local publication.
Seek the local angle --if there is one-- in your stories.
Today's lesson involves the facts from Workbook Exercise 4.2. Here we
have a story about a convention that happened in New Orleans. So what?
Why put it in our paper? We are interested in it because of the local
person. So let's put him in the lead. And since we have a number of
identifiers for him, we'll use either a blind lead or a delayed identification
lead.
But which would be preferable? There are a number of factors that would
help us. Perhaps the most important is to think about the delayed identification
lead. If we were to merely put the person's name in the lead, would
readers recognize the name enough to be interested in reading the next
paragraph? Sometimes that doesn't matter, but it is a good test to start
with.
But before we start, what is the story about and what are the elements
we're going to have to deal with.
The story is about a local person who has been elected president of
a national trade organization. The blind/delayed ID elements are:
- Charles Applegate/owner of a local bookstore
(We have other descriptions of him, such as city
councilman and chairman of the Washington County Democratic Committee,
but those descriptions are not what got him elected.)
- Mid-State Booksellers Association/an association
of 2,000 members that holds an annual trade show and watches legislation.
If this were a press release, it likely would have a dateline
on it. The dateline today is a word or two, usually in all caps, that
indicates the place of origin of the story. In earlier days when news
was not transmitted around the world quite as fast as it is today, the
dateline also included the date the story originated. When you localize
such a story, however, you remove the dateline.
This time, since Applegate is a city councilman and local business owner
who might well be recognized by a number of our readers, we will start
with a delayed identification lead.
- Charles Applegate was elected as president of
the Mid-State Booksellers Association in New Orleans last week.
- If we had gone with a blind lead, it might look like
this:
- The owner of a local bookstore has been elected
president of the Mid-State Booksellers Association.
- or
- The owner of a local bookstore has been elected
president of a national booksellers organization.
Remember, while the focus is on the man elected, we've got the other
blind/delayed ID element, and it can be split either way. Also note
that we can complete that blind/delayed ID obligation in the third
paragraph if the second starts to get cluttered.
Back to our delayed ID version:
- The owner of a local bookstore has been elected
president of the Mid-State Booksellers Association.
Charles Applegate has been active in the organization for the last
10 years and served last year as its vice president. He was elected
at the association's annual convention in New Orleans.
- I don't want to use "Thursday and Friday,"
because I don't know exactly which day he was elected.
- The association has about 2,000 members in 50
states and holds an annual trade show and watches legislation that
may affect book publishers and booksellers. About 1,000 members were
at last week's convention.
- That last paragraph is about as long as you want
to get, so you might want to save the second sentence for later in
the story.
- The owner of Applegate Books on New York Avenue
will serve as president for one year. In addition to this position,
he also serves as a Carolton city councilman and chairman of the Washington
County Democratic Committee.
- The name of the bookstore came from the directory
in the back of the workbook. Do not make up facts.
Now it is your turn. Write a story from the facts in Workbook Exercise
4.1 and feature the local angle/person using a blind or delayed identification
lead. But before you do answer and e-mail the following questions
to me regarding that assignment.
- In one sentence, what
is the story about?
- What are the blind/delayed ID elements that must
be dealt with in the assignment.
rCameron@cerritos.edu
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