Glossary of Reporting & Editing

Journalism is literature in a hurry. Speed is the most important element in news reporting. Speed determines your time to write report in full, check it for accuracy and rewrite it. Jargons become indispensable in such situations. So it may be useful to acquaint us with some of the jargons used in a newspaper office to know better what is being said. The terms in common usage are:

Ad: Advertisement.
Add: Copy to be added to a story already written.
Advance: A preliminary story concerning a future event.
Alive or live: A live story is one on which a reporter is working and that will be used.
A.M: Morning paper.
Angle: The aspect emphasized in a story.
Art: All newspaper illustrations.
Assignment: Reporter’s task.
Banner: A page-wide headline (also called ‘streamer’)
Barline: A one-line headline.
Beat: The reporter’s regular run e.g. Parliament, police etc.
Blind interview: Interview that does not give the name of the person interviewed.
Blurb: A preliminary paragraph set up distinctively to introduce a feature or news story.
Body: The main part of a news story after the lead. Sometimes called the development.
Body type: Small type in which most of the paper is set.
Boil: Boiling is more drastic than trimming. It implies close paring of all sentences and the sacrifice of minor facts. Length of the story s substantially reduced.
Box: An enclosure of line rules or borders.
Breaking news: Unexpected, unplanned occurrences, for example, a plane crash. A story that should be covered quickly and without any advance preparations.
By-line: The author’s name at the start of a story.
C. and L.C. or clc: capital and lowercase letters.
Canned copy: Publicity Material.
Caption/Cutline: Explanatory lines describing a picture or illustration, usually under the picture.
Dateline: Line at the beginning of the story that includes both date and place.
Deadline: The time all copy must be completed in order to make an edition.
Deck: Part of a multi-line headline.
Desk: Copy desk.
Double truck: Two adjoining pages made as one.
Dummy: Diagram of a page for use in making up a page.
Ear: Small box in the upper corner of the nameplate.
Edition: A specific version of one issue of a newspaper as “dak edition”, “city edition”, “late city edition”.
Editorialise: To include opinion of the writer in copy.
Embargo: A restriction, such as the precise date and time, placed on the release of news.
Filler: Short news or informational items used to fill small spaces in a page.
Flag: Name of paper appearing on first page.
Flash: A short message briefly summarizing a news event or the first information of any story.
Follow up: story giving later development of an event already written.
Follow copy: Instructions on copy to set story or word exactly as written, used often to indicate that word is purposely misspelled or that spelling is unorthodox.
Fotog: Short for photographer.
Fourth estate: The press, the term given by Edmund Burkee.
Future book: An editor’s calendar of future meetings, programs and news events that must be covered. Editors keep a future book as one means of managing the coverage of the news.
Head: Short for “headline”.
Headline schedule: All of the headline combinations used by a newspaper.
Hold for release: instructions to hold a copy until editor orders it printed.
Insert: Copy that is to be inserted in a story already sent to the compositor.
Jump: To continue a story from one page to another.
Jump head: Headline above a continued story.
Jump lines: Lines such as “continued on page 6” or “continued from page 1” to identify a continued story.
Human interest: An essential element of the news, recognition of the fact that people are interested in what other people do. Especially strong human-interests elements are love, children, success and misfortune, pets and animals.
Kill: To delete a story.
Layout: 1. Diagram of page showing where stories and ads are to be placed; 2. Arrangement of pictures on picture page.
L.C. or lc: Lowercase type.
Lead: The first paragraph of a news story also called “intro”.
Legman: A reporter who covers news but does not write it to save time for the job of reporting. The legman hands over the writing stuff to someone else. Legmen phone their stories in to the rewrite desk.
Library: Newspaper morgue or files or clippings, photographs, prepared obituaries, biographies, etc.
Localize: To localize the local angle in the story.
Log: City editor’s assignment book.
Make-over: Rearrangement of stories on page to provide for new copy or to change the position of stories.
Makeup: Arrangement stories, pictures, ads, etc., on a page.
More: Used at end of a page of copy to indicate story is continued on another page.
Must: Instructions that the story must be used on that day without fail.
Newsprint: A soft paper made from wood pulp and used in printing newspapers.
News peg: The significant or interesting point on which a reporter hangs a story.
News hole: The number of columns of space available for news in a newspaper. The space not devoted to advertising.
Obit: Obituary.
Op-Ed: Page opposite the editorial page featuring comment, cartoons and other editorial matter.
Ombudsman: A reader’s representative who serves as a short of middleman between the newspaper staff and the public.
P.M: Afternoon paper.
Page brightener: Light and generally humorous features, mostly short, that lighten and brighten the news.
Pica: A printer’s measurement. One Pica is one-sixth of an inch.
Point: A printer’s measurement. Type size—the heights of the face of a letter—is measured in points. There are 72 points to the inch. A 36-point typeface—display or headline type—is half and inch in height.
Policy story: A story directly or indirectly showing the newspaper’s stand on an issue.
Proof: An outline of set type used in correcting errors.
Proof-reader: Person who reads proof to correct errors.
Query: Questions on an event sent by a correspondent to a paper or by a paper to a correspondent.
Queue: Order of priority in scheduling; each schedule is known as “queue”.
Quote: Quotation.
Release: Instructions on the time to publish a story, as “release after 3 pm Feb.6.”
Run: A press run (edition).
Run over: Part of a story that is continued on another page.
Sacred cow: News or promotional material that the publisher or editor demands to be printed in a special manner.
Schedule: List of assignments.
Scoop: An exclusive story.
Slant: Emphasis or bias. The direction given to a story. A story directed to a certain segment of a newspaper’s readership is said to be slanted for those readers. For example, a story may be slanted to teen-age readers.
Slot man: Copy desk chief.
Slug: A one-word or two-word identification for a news story, typed at the top of each page of the story.
Squib: A brief story.
Stet: To restore text of copy that has been marked out.
String: Newspaper clippings pasted together.
Subhead: Small, one-line headline.
Suspended interest: A type of news story in which the main point or outcome is withheld until the end of the story rather than being summarised at the beginning.
Spot news: Breaking news.
Stringer: Someone who reports or writes for a newspaper on a production basis, that is, paid for what is published rather than as a full, time, salaried staff member.
Style: Conventions or accepted usage regarding punctuation, capitalisation, abbreviations, use of names and titles and other features of written language.
Stylebook: A written guide to newspaper or wire services preferences in matters of style.
Take: A section of a running story.
Thirty: The end of a story. Numeral usually used. Write thirty or 30.
Tie-back: That part of the story which gives past events to remind the readers or to give background for the latest developments.
Trim: Reduce length of a story.
U.C. and L.C: Uppercase and lowercase type.
Wire: Press associations, the UNI, the PTI etc. Wire copy is the copy supplied by the press associations.
Yellow Journalism: A term used to describe vulgar, unpleasant and sensational news coverage. Practiced in early 1900s in America. Journalism that exploits, distorts, exaggerates and sensationalizes.
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