add add copies to be added to stories already written; advancer advancer stories led two or three days before

an event; curtainraisers are led just before an event; advertorial advertorial advertisements that look like articles or features; all caps all caps all in capital letters; anchor anchor the member of a news team who coordinates the reports; angle angle emphasis chosen for news stories, sometimes called a slant; armpit armpit page layout where a storys banner headline sits on top of a photo or another headline; assignment assignment any news-gathering tasks given to reporters; attribution attribution identication of the source of information; backgrounder backgrounder informative, factual stories that relate the history or background of current news events; background background information that is not intended for publication; bank bank lower portion of a headline; banner banner a headline stretching across the top of a page; also streamers, or banner lines; bar bar a thick rule, for decoration, or to contain type for subheads or standing heads; bastard measure bastard measure any non-standard width for a column of text; beat beat the news areas for which reporters are responsible; binding binding treatment of stock after printing, such as cutting, folding, trimming, gathering; bleed bleed a page element that extends to the trimmed edge of a printed page; blind interview blind interview interview stories where people are not disclosed; a highly placed ocial, a source close to the mayor; blow up blow up to play a story beyond its news value; to enlarge something such as photographs, art; body type body type type used for text; body is the main part of news stories after the headlines and the leads; boilerplate boilerplate a brief paragraph stating who you are, what you do, and how you do it, usually the rst graf in a biography or the last in a news release; boil boil or boil down, an expression for condensing news copies; also trim; bold or boldface bold or boldface heavy or dark-faced type; border border rules used to form boxes or to edge photographs; box box a ruled border around a story or art; a sidebar or extra information; breakline breakline a mid-sentence or paragraph that continues the story on the following page; breakout breakout or highlighted text box, synopses of stories; break break the parts of stories that are continued on another page; sometimes several breaks are gathered on a break page; also jumps; brief brief a small or tiny story; brite brite or bright, a funny, short story; broadsheet broadsheet a full-size newspaper, measuring roughly 14 by 23 inches; budget budget various news departments proposals for what they want to put in the newspaper, done with space and news; bug bug term for a sig or logo used to label a story; often indented into the text; bullet bullet a large dot or other shape used as an attention-getter; bumping heads bumping heads or butting heads, headlines from adjacent stories that collide with each other; also tombstoning; byline byline the name of the writer, between headlines and leads; bylines at the end is often preceded by dashes called signers; 1

callouts callouts words, phrases or text blocks used to label parts of a map or diagram; also factoids; canned copy canned copy term for publicity materials sent by press agents; caps caps capital or uppercase letters; caption caption the information which accompanies a photo or illustration; also cutline; cartoon cartoon or comic strip, a drawing caricaturing or symbolising some event, situation, or person; classieds classieds advertisements placed along with advertisements for similar events; colour colour colouring a story implies introducing an element of bias or editorial point of view; giving a story colour means brightening the story with human interest material; column inch column inch newspaper measurement of the smallest possible advert space one-column wide by one-inch long; column logo column logo graphic labels for regular material with writers name, columns name and probably a small mug; column column area on a news page; article appearing regularly, written by a writer or columnist; compose compose to type copy into a computer le; composition composition the overall appearance of a newspaper page; continuation line continuation line type telling the readers that a story continues on another page; contributing reporter contributing reporter or writer often used to describe a freelance writer; copy desk copy desk the desk where articles are edited, headlines and captions written, newspaper style is enforced and deadlines are either made or missed; copyediting copyediting or subediting correcting, improving and marking copy to be printed copy copy material; the text of a story; correspondent correspondent reporters assigned to cover work away from the home oce; a string correspondent is not a full-time employee, and is paid according to the quantity of copy accepted by the newspaper; also stringer; credit line credit line identication of the source of a story or photo; crop crop to trim the shape or composition of a photo before it runs in the paper; cub cub a beginning reporter; cuto rule cuto rule rules running under stories, photos or cutlines to separate them from another element below; cutout cutout photos where the background has been removed; also silhouette; cut cut a drawing or illustration, to reduce the length of a story; daily daily newspapers that print a new newspaper each day; dateline dateline line at the beginning of an out-of-town story, with place and date of origin; also placeline; a foreign story gathered by phone at home might run with no dateline; deadline deadline the last moment to get copy in for an edition; deck deck a small headline running below the main headline; also a drop head; display advert display advert print advertising which includes a headline, copy and illustrative material; distinguishable from classied advertising which contains only copy; display headline display headline a non-standard headline, often with decorative type, rules, all caps; doglegs doglegs L-shaped text columns that wrap around art, adverts or other stories; double burn double burn process by which two dierent elements are overlapped when printed, such as printing type on top of a photo; also overprinting; downstyle downstyle a headline style that capitalises only the rst word and proper nouns; drop drop short for drop head; stories that were planned to run and then did not; dummy dummy the diagram used for page layout. ears ears space at the top of the front page on each side of the newspapers name where weather news, index to pages or announcement of special features appears; edition edition a press run of a newspaper; a daily may have more than one editions a day, for example, city edition, early edition; editorial calendar editorial calendar the listing of specic times a publication will focus on special sections or special news reporting; 2

editorial cartoon editorial cartoon cartoon that expresses an opinion about a news personality, issue or event; editorial editorial newspaper articles written by, or on behalf of, editors; ellipsis ellipsis three periods (. . . ) used to indicate the omission of words; embargo embargo the time when something can be released; breaking an embargo reporting information early may cause sources to be less willing to release news; enlarge enlarge to increase the size of an image; ethics in journalism ethics in journalism code of morals that journalists are supposed to upholda commitment to revealing the truth, objectively and without being inuenced by self-interest, maintaining the secrecy of sources, and attributing what is said to the appropriate source; exclusive exclusive stories (to be) printed by only one paper; also a scoop; execution at dawn execution at dawn pictures of people lined up against the wall, left to right . . . ; ller ller short informational stories or advertisements, usually timeless, used to ll small spaces; rst-day story rst-day story stories published for the rst time and dealing with something that has just happened, as opposed to follow-up or second-day stories; ve Ws and H ve ws and h the questions which all news stories should answer: who, what, when, where, why and how; ag ag the printed title (name and logo) at the top of the front page; also a nameplate; ash ash the rst brief bulletin from a press association with information about an important news event; op op to create a backward, mirror image of a photo or illustration during printing; to reverse art laterally; ush left ush left text aligned so that they are even along the left margin; ush right ush right text aligned so that they are even along the right margin; ush ush even with the column margin; text set ush has no indentation for paragraphs; folio folio newspaper name, date, and page number that appear at the top of each page; fourth estate fourth estate an 18th century term for the press; the other three estates in England, all represented in the parliament, were the nobles, clergy and commons; full frame full frame the entire image area of a photograph; gatekeepers gatekeepers people who determine what will be printed, broadcast, produced, or consumed; GA ga short for general assignment; GAs are reporters who do not have beats; gobbledygook gobbledygook language that is unnecessarily complicated, unclear, and wordy; goodnight goodnight a reporter is released from duty for the day when he or she gets a goodnight from the editor; graf graf newsroom slang for paragraph; graph graph statistical information presented visually, using lines or bars; grip and grin grip and grin photos of people receiving awards or diplomas, cutting ribbons or passing out cheques; gutter gutter the space between two columns; hairline hairline a .5-point rule; hammer head hammer head headlines that use a big, bold word or phrase for impact and runs a small, wide deck below; handout handout a press release; hard news hard news factual accounts of important events, usually appearing rst in a newspaper; headline headline or head, titles of stories, usually printed in large type; a subheads are smaller headlines inserted between paragraphs of copy; headers are special labels for any regularly appearing sections, pages or stories, also standing head; hold hold hold for release instruction to hold a story until the editor releases it for publication; human interest human interest emotional appeal in the news; human interest stories, as compared with straight news stories, base their appeal more on the unusual than on consequence; hyphenation hyphenation dividing a word with a hy-phen at the end of a line; indent indent a part of a column set in a narrower width; usually the rst line of a paragraph is usually indented; initial caps initial caps usually the rst three words in caps, in the leads; 3

insert insert a yer or magazine inserted into the folded newspapers; inset inset art or text set inside other art or text; inside inside not on the front page, as in, the story was run inside; interview interview a meeting in which a person is asked about views, activities; investigative reporting investigative reporting reporting that requires a careful search to uncover facts and determine the truth; italic italic type that slants to the right; jargon jargon any overly obscure, technical, or bureaucratic words that would not be used in everyday language; jump headline jump headline a special headline treatment reserved for stories continued from another page; jumpline jumpline type telling the reader that a story is continued from another page; jump jump to continue a story from one page to another, the continued material; justication justication mechanically spacing out lines of text so they are all even along both right and left margins. kicker kicker a small, short, one-line headline, often underscored, placed above a larger headline; kill kill to eliminate all or part of stories; layout editor layout editor the person who begins the layout plan; layout layout the way newspapers are designed and laid out on pages; lc lc lower case; lead time lead time period of time that reporters and producers need to prepare stories and information for publication or broadcast; lead-in lead-in words or phrases in contrasting type that precedes a cutline, headline or text; leader leader a dotted line; also editorial; lead lead sounded as lead, the rst few sentences or the rst graf of stories; sounded as led, the space between lines of type, also leading; leg leg a column of text; letter to the editor letter to the editor letters in which readers express their views in newspapers, usually printed on the editorial page or the page opposite the editorial page; libel libel publication of material that unjustly injures a persons reputation; library library a newspapers collection of clippings, books, les; earlier called morgue; liftout quote liftout quote a graphic treatment of a quotation taken from a story, often in bold or italic, rules or screens; also pull or pullout quotes; lineage lineage the total amount of space taken up by column width times inches of depth; loaded words loaded words words that leave people with a distinct and often negative impression; localise localise to emphasise the local angle in out-of-town stories; magazine magazine a periodical intended for the general public rather than for scholars; mainbar mainbar main stories, as distinguished from sidebar stories; back-formed expression; make-over make-over rearrangement of stories on a page to provide for new copy or to change the position of stories; margin margin the space between text columns; mark up mark up to put composition or editing instructions on copy or layouts; mass media mass media means of communication that reach and inuence large numbers of people, especially newspapers, popular magazines, radio and television; masthead masthead list of editors, publishers, and senior reporters, address, telephone number, statement of ownership, place of publication in each publications issue, generally placed on the editorial page; often mistaken for ag; measure measure the width of a headline or column of text; mortise mortise placing one element text, photo or artwork so that it partially overlaps another; mug shot mug shot a small photo showing a persons face; negative negative an image that is opposite the way it will appear in the paper; dark areas appear light and light areas appear dark 4

news article news article it presents, as objectively as possible, the facts about the latest news events. news conference news conference meeting called to give information to the news media; news feature news feature special stories or articles that go in detail about concepts and ideas of specic market interest; news hole news hole the amount of space left for news after advertisements have been arranged on the page; news release news release especially prepared statement for the news media; newsprint newsprint the soft, rough-nish wood pulp paper on which newspapers are printed; nut graf nut graf the paragraph in a story that says what the story is about and why they should care; obit obit or obituary, a biography of a dead person; sometimes canned obits are kept on le for use at the time of a prominent persons death; o the record o the record information not for publication, or at least not attributed to the source if used as background; on the record on the record the opposite of o the record; op-ed page op-ed page a page that is opposite the editorial page, and contains columns, articles, letters for readers and opinions; orphan orphan a short word or phrase that is carried over to a new column or page; overline overline a small headline that runs above a photo; usually used with stand-alone art; captions above photographs; pad pad to make a story longer by using more words than are necessary; page one page one the rst page of the newspaper, important, as in page one news; paraphrase paraphrase an indirect quote or summary of the words the news maker said; paste up paste up art and photos are pasted up on a page; photo credit photo credit a line that tells who shot a photograph; pix pix abbreviation for pictures; plate plate a plate contains the image of one page and is installed onto the press; play play the emphasis given on a piece of news; a story may be played down or played up; pool pool a certain number of reporters or one reporter who goes out and represents everyone else; pool coverage is usually shared with other media outlets; pork chop pork chop half-column picture; also thumbnail; prole prole a short biography of an interesting person; it is usually based on an interview; pu pu editorialised, complimentary statement in a news story; pull quote pull quote liftout quote; pullout quotes put to bed put to bed printers term meaning all the pages of an edition are completed and the presses are ready to roll; q and a q and a copy in question and answer form, as in verbatim reports of court proceedings; quotes quotes quotation marks; a quote is a portion of a story that consists of direct quotations; rag right, rag left rag right, rag left not justied; uneven on either the right or the left; ragged right ragged right text set even along the left edge, with right edge uneven; raw wrap raw wrap text that extends into a column alongside its headline; refer refer sounded as reefer, a line or paragraph, often given graphic treatment, referring to a related story elsewhere in the paper; also whips; reverse reverse a printing technique that creates white type on a dark background; also dropout; rewrite rewrite revising stories to improve them; rim rim the copy editors, collectively, on analogy of the horseshoe-shaped piece of furniture with rim editors around the outside and slot editors on the inside, doling out and checking work; roman roman upright type, as opposed to italic type; also normal or regular; round-up story round-up story story geared to look back at what has happened over a specic period of time; rules rules lines used to separate one story from another on a newspaper page; runaround runaround text that wraps around an image; also wraparound, skew; 5

running story running story a story that develops over a period of several days or more and is reported from day to day; runover runover part of a story that continues on a second page; sacred cow sacred cow a person, subject or institution given special favour or treatment in a newspaper; scale scale to reduce or enlarge artwork or photographs; schedule schedule a news editors record of assignments; the copy editors record of stories handled; screen screen a pattern of tiny dots used to create grey areas; second front page second front page the front page of a second section; also split page; sectional story sectional story a major news story with dierent aspects, featured under two or more headlines; series series a group of related stories generally run on successive days; shirt tail shirt tail a short, related story added at the end of a longer one; short short a minor, brief story; sidebar sidebar a secondary news story that supports or amplies a major story; sidesaddle head sidesaddle head a headline placed to the left of a story, instead of above it; also side head; skybox skybox teasers that run above the ag on Page One; if they are boxed, with art, they are called skyboxes or boxcars; if they use only a line of type, they are called skylines; also promo; slander slander similar to libel, but spoken instead of published; slot slot one of the people on the copy desk who checks over the copy editors work before committing it to type; also as a verb: slot me on this, will you? slug slug an internal name for a story, usually just one word, such as munipoll for municipal elections; spike spike to kill something; spin spin jargon for the point of view or bias created in a story; spot news spot news news obtained on the scene of an event, usually unexpectedly; squib squib a short news item; a ller; stand-alone photo stand-alone photo photos that do not accompany stories, usually boxed; also wild art; standrst standrst or subdeck, explantory lines between headlines and bylines; standing heads standing heads headlines that do not change and are usually kept in a library le for instant use; stet stet let it stand, proofreaders notation instructing the printer to ignore a change marked on a proof; from Latin stetundum; straight news straight news a plain account of news facts written in standard style and structure, without colouring or embellishments; stringer stringer a correspondent for a newspaper or a news agency, usually part-time, who often covers a certain subject or geographic area; summary deck summary deck a special form of deck, smaller and wordier than most decks, that epitomises the main points; summary lead summary lead traditional journalism tool used to start o most hard news stories: Sunday or Friday supplement sunday or friday supplement a newspaper section in magazine format that is inserted into the newspaper but is not part of the newspaper itself; syndicated syndicated report that appears in more than one media outlet simultaneously; tabloid tabloid technically, a publication half the size of a standard newspaper page; but commonly, any newspaper that is splashy and heavily illustrated, often about sensational subjects; also tab; takeout takeout a longer story that takes a step back from daily, breaking news stories to put a running story with frequent developments into context and perspective; teaser teaser an eye-catching graphic element, on section fronts, that promotes an item inside; also called a promo; text text the verbatim report of a speech or public statement; think piece think piece a background or opinion article; tie-back tie-back the part of the story that ties it back to something that has already been published; a tie-in connects a story with some other, perhaps more important, story; 6

tint tint a light colour, often used as a background tone, made from a dot screen; trend story trend story a feature story that focuses on the current fads, directions, tendencies, and inclinations of society; tripod tripod a headline that uses a big, bold word or phrase and two smaller lines of deck squaring o alongside; turnline turnline says to go to the next page where the article continues; typo typo typographical error, a mechanical error in typing a story; an euphemism for writers or editors mistake; uc uc uppercase, or capital, letters; underscore underscore to run a rule below a line of type; upstyle upstyle editing style calling for extensive use of capital letters; opposite of downstyle; well well adverts stacked along both edges of the page, with news in the middle; white space white space areas of a page free of any type or artwork; widow widow a single word or short line of type at the end of a paragraph, particularly at the top or bottom of a column or page; wire copy wire copy editorial matter supplied by outside sources, especially transmitted by telegraph or teletype from news services; written-in bylines written-in bylines standrsts with bylines such as So and So writes . . . ;