12 | Journalism@ul
‘Lingo’ - journalism terms Byline The author of the news story, and it appears the beginning of all written copy. House style is to capitalise By, eg By Joe Kelly. Where more than one byline is to be used on a news story, names should be separated by “and” for a jointly authored story or by a comma between each name except for the last two names, which should be separated by “and” for multiple bylines, eg By Michael Jones, Mary Noone and Tom Fallon.
Copy Journalistic slang for your news story.
Intro The introduction to a news story. Should include the most important detail of the story and ideally be 20 to 25 words long.
Par Short for paragraph, usually refers to 30 words, so a 10 par story is 300 words. Known as “graph” in US newsrooms.
Catchline: One/two word title (traditionally at the top right of your story, nowadays with
computers it is usually the file name) that identifies your story, eg ‘Factory fire’. With common words like murder and rape, it may be necessary to add a second word if there are more than one of those events on the news list.
Headline The title on your news story. It will usually appear in big, bold type above your story. Reporters do not usually write headlines.
Sub-head A smaller second headline that appears directly below a headline. It will not further explain a headline but may act as a second headline, or second angle, on a news story.
Deadline: The due date, or due time for your copy. Never miss a deadline.
Strapline