VIII

OTHER NEWS STORIES

The fire story is obviously not the only news story that is printed in a
daily newspaper, but a study of its form gives us a working knowledge of
the writing of other news stories. The fire story is probably the
commonest news story, and it is by far the easiest story to handle, for
its form has become somewhat standardized. We know just exactly what our
readers want to know about each fire, and within certain limits all
fires, as well as the reports of them, are very much alike. There is
seldom more than one fact or incident that makes one fire different from
another and that fact we always seize as the feature of our report.
However, the fire story has been taken only as typical of other news
stories. Now we are ready to study the others, using the fire story as
our model in writing the others.

There is a vast number of other stories that we must be able to write,
and they lack the convenient uniformity that fires have. Not only does
every story have a different feature, but it is concerned with a
different kind of happening. One assignment may call for the report of
an explosion, another the report of a business transaction, and another
a murder. In each one we have to get the facts and choose the most
striking fact as our feature. Never can we resort to the simple
beginning "Fire destroyed," but we must find a different beginning for
each assignment.

Just as in the fire story, the lead of any news story is the most
important part. It must begin with the most striking part of the event
and answer the reader's _Where?_ _When?_ _How?_ _Why?_ and _Who?_
concerning it. All the rules that apply to the fire lead apply to the
lead of any story.

It would be impossible to classify all the news stories that a newspaper
must print. The very zest of reporting comes from the changing variety
of the work; no two assignments are ever exactly alike--if they were
only one would be worth printing. Newspapers themselves make no attempt
to classify the ordinary run of news or to work out a systematic
division of labor; a reporter may be called upon to cover a fire, a
political meeting, a murder, a business story, all in the same day. Each
one is simply a story and must be covered in the same way that all the
rest are covered--by many interviews for facts. For our study it may be
well to divide news stories into a few large groups. The groups overlap
and are not entirely distinct, but the stori