6
Writing for Print Journalism
Print journalism is not dead, and it’s not dying. It is receding in importance, however.
But print is still a viable form of information presentation. Newspapers, which once dominated
all of journalism, find themselves caught in an economic vice of shifting platforms, difficult
economic times, falling subscriber numbers, and increased competition. Newspapers have never
had to be particularly inventive, and for the final half of the 20th century, they enjoyed a
monopoly within their geographic area. Consequently, newspapers have not be well suited to
meet the challenges of the early 21st century.
Student journalists should ready themselves for
print journalism just as they must prepare
themselves to conduct other forms of
journalism. Print is emerging from the miasma
of the first decade of this century as a form
particularly suited to what we are beginning to view as long-form journalism. This is journalism
that is not breaking news. Rather, it’s the journalism that takes time to both produce and
consume.
writing of stories that are emerging as more suitable to print. Many of our students come to our
journalism/communication programs with the idea that they would like to write for a magazine
— that they would like to do long form journalism. Here’s where we can introduce them to some
of the concepts that will help them achieve this goal.
Key terms and concepts
The following are some of the key terms and concepts that a student should understand and be
able to put into practice by the time he or she has finished this chapter.
Attribution — The concept of attribution was introduced in previous chapters, but in this chapter
the student will need to understand it well enough to put it into practice. The student should
know why attribution is important, when it should be used (and when it is not necessary), and
what forms of attribution are acceptable in writing the news story.
Chapter Notes
State of the news media. For several years, the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism has
produced a detailed and insightful annual report on the state of the news media. The report has
Expensive misspelling. Tell your students (as you undoubtedly do) that they need to spell
correctly and that they should check their spelling. Not doing so can turn out to be an expensive
proposition. That’s what the folks in Livermore, Calif., found out in 2004 when they spent $40,000
for a mosaic for their new library. The artwork contained 175 words, many of them names of
writers, scientists and artists. Some 11 of those words were misspelled. They included
Shakespeare (Shakespere), Einstein (Eistein), and Gauguin (Gaugan). The Miami artist who
executed the work at first claimed artistic license (maybe some of your students have used the
Idea. Collect. Focus. Draft. Clarify. Roy Peter Clark, one of the Poynter Institute’s writing gurus,
has done it again. He has given us an excellent article about writing. This one concerns the
writing process itself, and he begins with Donald Murray’s five-word outline of what writing is:
idea, collect, focus, draft, clarify. This simple model universalizes the process, whether the
writing is for the annual report of a stock brokerage company or the most compelling piece of
journalism. A writer begins with the idea (often, in a journalist’s case, the assignment); collects
the information necessary to support the idea (reports); at some point decides what the writing is
larger ones), the obit story has been relegated to a classified advertisement. But writing obits is
important work. It always has been. Bert Barnes spent 20 years at the Washington Post writing
obituaries before retiring in March 2004. He has written an article for the Post about his
experiences on the obit desk. In it he says:
I loved that work. It taught me that even in the monotony of the daily grind, life could be
funny and beautiful, surprising and strange. Death is no big deal if you don’t love life. I
only wish I could have met more of the people I wrote about.
One of the first exercises I had in a beginning news writing class in college was to write my own
obituary. All of us in the class had to do that, and we had a lot of fun with it. I remember trying
Clichés. One of the most dangerous traps a writer can fall into — especially a beginning writer —
– is the use of clichés. Clichés are overused expressions that have lost their freshness and vitality.
Chances are, if you hear a new expression more than once among your friends, it has already
reached the status of a cliché— and it should be avoided like the plague (!! CLICHE ALERT!!).
Question Bank
(Some of these questions build on information in chapters 4 and 5.)
1. As opposed to just a few years ago, most newspapers are losing money.
2. Magazines are likely to have a more well-defined audience than newspapers.
3. Information that may not need attribution in a news story includes
4. Define attribution.
5. When we say that information should be attributed, we mean that it should
6. The most common structure for a print news story is the inverted pyramid. That means:
7. What is the preferred verb for attribution in print news stories?
8. List two technical guidelines for writing a lead for a news story.
9. Which is correct if you are writing for print?
10. The most important part of a news story is the:
11. Almost all media writing is a collaboration; usually it’s between a writer and an editor.
12. Writers should never edit their own copy — it’s too painful.
13. The when element in the lead should be
14. What should the second paragraph of a news article contain?
15. A writing device used to tie different pieces of information together is the
16. In any news story, if these are present, they are considered the most important facts of the story:
17. The lead paragraph in a speech story should include
18. Information that reflects badly on the deceased should be omitted from an obituary.
19. One of the reasons that journalists like courtroom stories is that
20. A feature story about some aspect of a person’s life is called a
21. College students should not think about writing a book; it’s too early in their careers to do so.