Style of news writing

Three Styles of Radio Newswriting
These pages provide hints on creating three different types of newscast through changes in writing. The topics include an in-depth style appropriate to many sformats, a style similar to that heard on the network hourlies, and a vivid style that fits well with younger formats.
1. The In-Depth Style
Many stations run local news-talk during drive time, often with a longtime, well-respected, pillar-of-the-community talker -- especially in morning drive. The newsroom needs not only to inform listeners of the important events of the day, but also to give them...and the talker...something to talk about. Stories need to have enough detail to allow the talker to make cogent arguments and hold intelligent conversations with listeners. Here the in-depth style can help.

Asking...and answering questions
We all remember the six essential questions a news story should answer: Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How? An in-depth story needs to pay special attention to the last two: the Why and the How...as in, Why is this politician proposing this plan? How will the plan work?, or Why is this researcher's work important? How will the research help people? When writing your stories, ensure that your script tries to provide some answers.
For example, a press release arrives from State University heralding better chickens. A researcher in the agriculture school says she's discovered that hens fed a special enzyme produce offspring less prone to disease. When you do your phone interview, ask about the implications for the person in the street in order to get tape that will be comprehensible to those listeners who are not poultry scientists. In your script, emphasize the general value of having healthier chickens while including a few details of the research with, say, a sentence like this:
...HENS GIVEN THE ENZYME TOBLERONE IN THEIR FEED PRODUCED LARGER CHICKENS LESS LIKELY TO PICK UP DISEASES THAT COULD BE PASSED ON TO HUMAN CONSUMERS IF THOSE CHICKENS AREN'T PROPERLY COOKED....
The story also gives your talker an issue, food safety. The talker can even extend the issue to question whether there's been too much manipulation of nature through all these research studies.
Thorough doesn't mean long
Story length in the in-depth style will be longer than in other styles, but not by that much. Stories without tape should run 25-30 seconds....stories with tape, 40-45. Shorter, 20-second stories should also be used both to increase story count (giving a wider sense of news coverage) and to provide listeners with some variety.
Since story count is relatively low, the in-depth style is not suitable for 90-second casts. This style is best suited for stations with a 5-minute news hole at the top of the hour and 3:30 at the bottom.
Story placement
Hierarchy is especially significant for the in-depth style. Length is often used by listeners to judge the importance of a story, but when many of the stories run at least half a minute, length no longer helps listeners figure out what's important. Story placement becomes the only means. The most important stories should come at the beginning of the cast....the less important stories towards the end.
You may want to end the cast with a zinger -- a humorous or unusual piece that gives the talker something immediately to play with and helps the talker's phone lines light up. Use common sense, however, in choosing a zinger. A longtime, well-respected, pillar-of-the-community talker is not going to want to offend listeners. Also keep in mind that you're supposed to be a journalist, not a comedian.
2. The Network Style
Credibility can often be a problem in medium-sized markets, where communities are too large for listeners to be personally familiar with most of the people or places making news, yet the resources of the station rarely allow for a newsroom staff of more than half a dozen reporter/anchors (if that) -- and this small staff often means few stories are produced and listeners perceive a "reporting gap."
One way to restore station credibility is to make the cast resemble the network hourlies, regardless of whether your station replaces the hourly with a local cast or does a 90-second local after the hourly.
High story count
The hallmark of the network style is high story count. Listen to a network hourly and notice how many different events are related. This variety gives listeners a sense of completeness....they feel they know all the major stories. This feeling helps build trust between your listeners and the station, and it gives your newsroom credibility.
A 90-second cast should aim for seven stories. You might be wondering, "My staff is so small to begin with, how am I to get seven different stories?" Odds are you're already taking some of your stories from press releases and the local newspaper. The two or three stories you've taken haven't exausted their source....there are still plenty of press releases on your desk and dozens of pages left in the newspaper. Certainly there are stories your listeners want to know about.
Short story length
Of course high story count means short story length. A 90-second cast with seven stories works out to an average of 13 seconds per story. This doesn't mean every story should be 13 seconds....rather, important stories should be given adequate time (20-25 seconds, though certainly no more), but less important stories need only a sentence or two. For example, let's say city council has been in a dispute with the mayor over cuts in the police budget. This story has been in the news on and off for a couple of weeks, and today at City Hall council members are holding a special meeting with the mayor to reach some sort of compromise. Here's all you need (and it runs roughly 7 seconds):
MIDDLEVILLE CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS ARE HUDDLING WITH MAYOR JANE SMITH TODAY, WITH BOTH SIDES HOPING TO RESOLVE THEIR DISPUTE OVER POLICE CUTS.
There should be some variation in story length throughout the cast...don't give listeners five 7-second stories followed by three 20-second ones. But there should be some progression, with the more important, longer stories at the beginning of the cast and the shorter, less important stories towards the end. One way of producing variation is to stick a 20-second-long humorous or feature story near or at the end of the cast.
Tape and the network style
You might think it impossible to incorporate much tape into a cast with such a high story count, but listen to the hourlies, which often have half a dozen or more tape pieces (both actualities and voicers/wraps). There's little difference in editing actualities for the network style. Keep them under 15 seconds or so, as you probably would for a more discursive style. The difference is in the copy surrounding the act. Two sentences in front, one sentence at the most (and quite often none at all) after.
For example, let's say the governor is proposing eliminating parole for those convicted of using a firearm when committing a crime. Your State News Network has fed you a 9-second cut, which runs as follows:
IF YOU USE A GUN WHEN COMMITTING A CRIME, YOU SHOULD DO THE TIME...AND THAT MEANS ALL THE TIME...BEFORE YOU ARE ALLOWED BACK IN SOCIETY.
Here's a script to make the cut fit within your time constraints:
PAROLE COULD BE A THING OF THE PAST FOR CONVICTS WHO USED A GUN IN THEIR CRIMES....THAT'S IF GOVERNOR DOUGLASS GETS HIS WAY.
Douglass act...OQ: "IN SOCIETY."
LEGISLATORS WOULD HAVE TO APPROVE DOUGLASS'S PLAN.
This entire story runs 18 seconds. In summary fashion it includes the important facts: the concept behind the governor's proposal, an actuality, and that the legislature would have to pass a bill for the proposal to become reality.
For voicers and wraps, station reporters should be instructed to keep stories short (though reporters often have difficulty with the concept of limiting the time their voices are on the air). For voicers in general...and network tape in particular...edit the cut down to 20-25 seconds. Start either from the beginning or, even better so long as the story remains coherent, with the second sentence of the piece, and continue for 20 seconds or so until there's a natural break (which there usually is). Leave off the lockout. In other words, transform the tape into what's often called a "correspondent's" cut.
If you leave out the first sentence of the original report, the information should be incorporated into your lead-in. You do not need to identify the reporter at the front....the differences in the sound of the voice will tell listeners there's a new reporter. When the cut ends, get out of the story only through identifying the reporter, such as:
ABC'S SUSAN STARR.
Cutting down wraps is far more difficult, and often wraps can't be coherently reduced under 30 seconds (especially if they contain a 20-second-long actuality). Nonetheless by editing voicers and wraps down to 20-25 seconds, you'll be able to include several pieces of tape into your network style cast.

3. The vivid style
Two popular radio formats are political talk and the FM Zoo. In political talk, the talker spends time generally warning listeners that Armageddon is upon us. Many political talkers are syndicated, but there are plenty of local versions as well.
The FM Zoo is a morning drive format on FM stations that during other dayparts play various shades of popular music (contemporary hit radio, adult contemporary, hot country, oldies, and so forth). In morning drive there is some music played, but much of the time is spent in sophomoric banter (often of a sexual nature) among the hosts, a traffic reporter, a sports reporter and a news anchor. You may recognize that the so-called "shock jocks" are merely the Zoo without music.
Tedium is fatal to these formats, and news anchors must employ a vivid writing style to keep listeners engaged.
Choosing stories
Story selection differs wildly between political talk and the FM Zoo. Violent crime, natural disasters and, of course, politics are the mainstay of the political talk newscast. The FM Zoo prefers stories about celebrities (which often include politicians) and about the humorous or unusual. Generally the news in the FM Zoo format should give listeners an excuse to be happy. The news in political talk gives listeners an excuse to be unhappy. In both formats, however, the same vivid style of newswriting applies.
Content, sentence structure, word choice
Vivid writing brings out unusual elements in everyday stories. For example, contract negotiations between the city and its workers have made little progress. A strike is possible, though the current contract still has a few weeks to run and no strike vote has been taken. The mayor has repeatedly said that any pay increase would lead to layoffs. The unions say the pay raise can be met by cutting fat in the city administration.
At the biweekly city council meeting, union leaders make a presentation. One councilmember tells the leaders in a matter-of-fact style, "I think it's a shame the way you've been treated. I want you to know that I support your efforts to improve your standard to living, and I support your right to strike. I hope it doesn't come to this, but shut down the city if you must. It's the mayor who's the only city worker who ought to be losing her job."
A standard reader on the story, lasting 18 seconds, might run like this:
CITY WORKERS IN MIDDLEVILLE HAVE TAKEN THEIR CONTRACT DISPUTE TO CITY COUNCIL. UNION LEADERS GOT A SYMPATHETIC HEARING AT LAST NIGHT'S COUNCIL MEETING IN THEIR ATTEMPTS FOR A PAY RAISE AND JOB GUARANTEES. MAYOR JANE SMITH HAS SAID THERE'S NO MONEY IN THE BUDGET FOR A PAY INCREASE, AND CONTRACT TALKS SO FAR HAVE MADE LITTLE PROGRESS.
The vivid writer notices that a city councilmember has told the unions, albeit conditionally, to "shut down the city." This becomes the lead of a more vivid reader lasting 21 seconds:
"SHUT DOWN THE CITY" -- THAT'S WHAT ONE MIDDLEVILLE CITY COUNCILMAN IS ADVISING CITY WORKERS IN THEIR SIMMERING CONTRACT DISPUTE WITH MAYOR JANE SMITH. DON JONES TOLD UNION LEADERS AT LAST NIGHT'S CITY COUNCIL MEETING THAT HE SUPPORTS THEIR RIGHT TO STRIKE FOR BETTER PAY AND JOB SECURITY, ADDING THAT IF ANY CITY WORKER'S TO LOSE A JOB, IT OUGHT TO BE THE MAYOR.
Content isn't the only difference between these two readers. The vivid reader is more conversational in sentence structure, beginning with a quotation that is back-referenced and ending with a conditional ("if...then") clause. The standard reader is prosaic, with simple sentence followed by simple sentence. There are also differences in word choice. The standard reader contains the bland adjective "sympathetic," in contrast to the vigorous "simmering" of the vivid reader. Notice also that "better pay" has a stronger sound than "pay increase."
Short and spare
Don't confuse vividness with verbosity. The vivid style is generally spare, with few adjectives ever used. Readers should run about 20 seconds. Wraps should last about 30 seconds. Far too often reporters fall in love with their own cleverness and give newscasts that sound like second-rate Victorian novels. The fault is especially evident in reporting violent crime, when we hear of "city sidewalks drenched with crimson stains from tepid pools of blood," or of "the languid evening interrupted by the sudden patter of semi-automatic weapons."
Violent crime is usually dramatic enough as it is. A simple telling of the event will be far more powerful than any re-creation compiled with the assistance of Roget's Thesaurus.