Your first week on a news desk sounds like a foreign language. Someone wants a standfirst by four, the splash has to be off the stone by five, and there's a NIB in the diary about a death knock nobody is volunteering for. It isn't a code designed to keep you out. Most of these words are shortcuts — two syllables doing the work of a sentence.
Nobody sits you down and teaches them. You're expected to pick them up while filing clean copy on deadline, which is a rotten way to learn anything. So here are forty terms you'll hear in your first month, roughly in the order they'll reach you: from the desk that commissions you to the page that publishes you.
The anatomy of a story
Start with the parts of a single piece. Most of them will be sitting in your content management system before you've written a word.
- Slug — the short working name for a story, usually two or three words: "council budget", "school closures". It is not a headline. It is how everyone finds your copy in the system.
- Splash — the main story on a page, and by extension the front page itself. "Is it a splash?" means "is it big enough to lead?"
- Standfirst — the paragraph or two under the headline that sells the story to the reader. Often called the sell.
- Intro — the opening paragraph. British desks say intro; American ones say lede. Either way, it's the sentence that has to earn the next one.
- Byline — your name on the story. Junior reporters chase them; subs decide whether they've been earned.
- Dateline — the place, and often the date, a story is filed from: "BIRMINGHAM, Tuesday".
- Nut graf — the paragraph that tells the reader why the story matters and why now. In features it usually lands in the third or fourth par.
- Top line — the single most newsworthy fact, agreed before you write. Everything else in the piece supports it.
- NIB — news in brief: a short single-column item, often 100 to 150 words. NIBs are where new reporters learn to cut.
- Crosshead — a small heading inside the body of a long piece, used to break up the text.
Commissioning, filing and deadlines
Newsrooms run on time and traffic. These are the words that usually arrive with a job attached.
- Commission — the instruction to write a story, normally with an angle, a length and a deadline attached.
- Copy — the text of a story. "Filing copy" means sending it in.
- Copy taster — a short summary at the top of your copy telling editors and subs what the story is and what the best line is.
- Deadline — when the copy is needed. Treat it as the start of your last hour, not the end of your writing.
- Embargo — an agreement not to publish before a stated time. Honour it. Breaking one costs you access.
- Spike — to cancel a story or decide not to run it. If your piece is spiked, ask what would have made it stand up.
- Turn — to rewrite or update a story as new information lands. It can also mean the twist that changes the angle.
- Diary — the forward-planning list: council meetings, court dates, press conferences, anniversaries.
- Off-diary — a story nobody handed you via a press release. Off-diary work is where reporters make their names.
Sources, quotes and attribution
Get these wrong and you'll damage a source or your own reputation. The rules are simple; the vocabulary is slippery.
- Attribution — telling the reader clearly who said it. Every claim needs one.
- On the record — the source can be named and quoted in full.
- Off the record — for your information only, not for publication. Agree the terms before the conversation starts, not after.
- Background — quotable but not attributable: "a senior official at the department". Deep background usually means it shapes your thinking and appears nowhere.
- Right of reply — giving anyone criticised in your story a fair chance to respond first. Put it in writing and keep the email.
- Doorstep — waiting outside someone's home or office to ask questions as they arrive or leave. Lawful, but use judgement.
- Death knock — approaching a bereaved family for interviews or photographs. Done badly it is cruel; done well it is some of the most important work in journalism. Never attempt one without speaking to a senior colleague first.
- Vox pop — short interviews with passers-by for a snapshot of public opinion, from the Latin vox populi.
- Colour piece — descriptive reporting from a scene, heavy on detail and light on news: the "how it felt" alongside the "what happened".
Legal watchwords
You will hear these in the first week and understand them by the second month. Treat this as vocabulary rather than legal advice. If a story touches any of it, speak to your editor and, where it matters, a media lawyer before you file.
- Defamation — a false statement that damages someone's reputation. Libel is the written form, slander the spoken. Accuracy and a right of reply are your defences.
- Contempt of court — publishing something that could seriously prejudice active proceedings. It can be committed from the moment of an arrest.
- Sub judice — literally "under a judge": the period when a case is before a court and comment must be restrained.
- Privilege — protection for reporting certain proceedings, such as a fair and accurate report of a public court hearing. It is not a licence to print everything said.
- Reporting restrictions — orders limiting what can be published, often to protect children or witnesses. Check them before you file, not after.
- Injunction — a court order forbidding publication of specified material.
Production and digital shorthand
By the time your copy reaches this stage, other people are handling it. Learn what they do and your stories will survive the journey.
- Sub — the sub-editor who checks your copy, fixes the grammar, writes the headline and saves you from yourself.
- Pull quote — a line lifted from the copy and set large in the middle of the page to pull readers in.
- Caption — the words under a picture. A good one adds information; a bad one describes what the reader can already see.
- Flatplan — the map of a page or edition showing which story and advert goes where. It explains why your 900 words became 400.
- SEO headline — a headline written for search engines rather than the page: plainer, keyword-led. You may be asked to supply both.
- Live blog — a rolling, timestamped file updated through a breaking story. Read several before you write one
Photo: sweetlouise / Pixabay
