purpose or result, of course, must be played up. The
one point that the reporter should remember is that a well-written lead
begins with the result or purpose of the meeting or announcement rather
than with the name of the meeting or the name of the body that makes the
announcement. Never begin a story thus: "At a meeting of the Press Club
held in the Auditorium last night it was resolved that----" Transpose
the sentence and begin with a statement of what was resolved. In the
following story the order is wrong:

| The Supreme Court of the United States,|
|through the opinion delivered by Justice |
|Vandevanter, today declared |
|constitutional the employers' liability |
|law of 1908. |

The import of the decision is buried; it should be written thus:

| The employers' liability law of 1908 |
|was today declared constitutional by the |
|Supreme Court of the United States. |
|Justice Vandevanter delivered the opinion|
|of the court, made in four cases. |

In these stories, as in all other news stories, the lead must begin with
the fact or statement that gives the story news value. Burying this fact
or statement behind two or three lines of explanation spoils the
effectiveness of the lead. A student of journalism may gain very good
practice in the writing of news stories by looking over the leads that
appear in the daily papers and transposing those leads which bury their
news behind explanations. The first line of type in a lead is like a
shop's show window and it must not be used for the display of packing
cases.

=8. Stories on Other Printed Matter.=--A large part of a newspaper's
space, especially in smaller cities, is devoted to stories based on
printed bulletins, announcements, city directories, legislative bills,
and published reports of various kinds. Sometimes a news story is
written upon a pamphlet that was issued for advertising
purposes--because there is some news in it. In all of these stories the
reporter must look through the pamphlet to find something of news value
or something that has a significant relation to other news. Smaller
papers often print stories on the new city directory; the increase or
decrease in population is treated as news and a very interesting story
may be written on a comparison of the names