Its all about the Lead

Sometimes what a writer presents as the lead for her story is unsuitable and as an editor it is my responsibility to source out a ‘better’ and ‘new’ lead from the article written. This was the advice given to me recently when I faithfully accepted a lead concerning social responsibility and religious obligations in a certain news report. I got this note:

Social responsibilities and religious obligations are important but not strong enough to be a lead. We (editors) need to highlight something ‘new’ or ‘rarely heard’. In the news report you edited, I believe the suggestion to provide a discount and hour before the breaking of fast something rarely heard of . . .

Sometimes the lead story is ‘stale’ and may have been touched on in the past. Again, something fresh needs to be the replacement lead; for this to happen  you need to remember past news and be able to ‘see’ new and exciting’ leads.

Lastly, find something that is ‘big’ to be a lead. Which one is bigger – donating RM35K or 1000 martial arts exponent to attend? The original lead was ‘donating RM35K’ which was seen as common and not a VERY large sum. The new lead was the participation of 1000 performers. Got it? Big.

This dog learns new things daily

Learning continues almost every day here at the editors work room . . . programme is with two m's and something else has two l's after a vowel, create a space between paragraphs, a press release is about 500-800 words only - cut out everything else and leave the basic 5W's about the event being released to the press, base jumping is spelt BASE jumping, headlines in present or present continous tense and cut out 'together' from the phrase 'together with' - faham? Yup, nemu aku!

Oh ya . . . yesterday I completed my first 30 days at work . . . still adjusting