Public NewsRoom: Writing for a National Audience

When writing for your NewsRoom, try to write your local stories, and especially the leads and headlines, for an audience that isn't familiar with your local community. Referencing the last name of a city mayor in a headline won't give someone from outside your community a clear understanding of who or what the story is about, and readers within your community might not understand the reference. An example:

• LOCAL ONLY: Mayor Menino says his administration is looking closely at a proposal to provide area schools with... (This assumes the reader knows who Mayor Menino is, what city he serves, and what his first name is.)
• LOCAL AND NATIONAL: Boston Mayor Thomas Menino says his administration is looking closely at a proposal to provide city schools with.... (Even though most people in your community know who the mayor is, the complete reference doesn't detract from the lead and provides context to readers outside your community.)

Headlines:
As for headlines, it's also important to write them to a broad audience:

• LOCAL ONLY: Rep. Mulls Presidential Bid (Could be an interesting story for a national audience, but no context.)
• LOCAL AND NATIONAL: Florida Rep. Mulls '04 Presidential Bid (More context is almost always better than less.)

Tease:
The text you place into the 'Tease' field of the 'Add New Article' form might not necessarily be your lead, especially if the story is a feature. Choose the summary paragraph as your tease, or write a new one that summarizes your story. The lead of a delayed-lead story could be taken out of context. The tease is seen along with the headline when your local news page is accessed.

Capitalization: NewsRoom headline style for capitalization is title case -- capitalize all words in your headlines except prepositions, conjunctions and articles. Always capitalize the first letter of the first and last word of your headline. Here's an incomplete list of prepositions, conjunctions and articles: a, an, the, and, if, then, else, when, up, at, from, by, on, off, at, for, from, in, of, out, over, and to.

• Example: Cyclists Are Three Times More Likely to Ride Bikes in April than Non-Cyclists

NOTES:

1. The "lead" is also known as the direct lead, it is the main theme of the article in a sentence or two. It answers immediately, in 25 words or less, the main questions of who, what, when and where.

2. The "delayed lead" is also called the feature lead. It captures the theme without explaining the main points immediately. It can be longer, up to four paragraphs. The delayed lead still must fulfill the two roles of the lead: It must capture the essence of the story and do it in a way that encourages the reader to continue.