become the story of the trial or the police court
hearing which followed the arrest. Perhaps the evening paper sends a man
to get the later developments in the case, but every rewrite man knows
the steps that always follow an arrest and he can rewrite the original
story without additional information. His account of the later
developments is called either a rewrite or a follow-up story, depending
upon the method employed. The same fundamental idea of rejuvenating the
former story governs the preparation of both the rewrite and the
follow-up story, but while the rewrite story contains no additional
news, the follow-up presents later facts in addition to the old news.

=1. The Rewrite Story.=--The rewrite story is primarily a rehashing of a
previous news story without additional facts. It attempts to give a new
twist to old facts in order to bring them nearer to the present time.
Without the aid of later facts the rewrite man can only select a new
feature and revise the old facts. For example, suppose that a $100,000
grain elevator burns during the night. The fire would make a big story
in a city of moderate size and the papers next morning would treat it at
length. If no one were killed or injured the story would probably begin
with a simple announcement of the fire in a lead of this kind:

| Fire destroyed the grain elevator of |
|the H. P. Jones Produce Company, First |
|and Water streets, and $50,000 worth of |
|wheat at 2 o'clock this morning. The |
|total loss is estimated at $150,000. |

Then the reporter would describe the fire at length, including all
obtainable facts. By afternoon almost every one in the city has read the
story--and yet the afternoon papers must print something about the big
fire. If no new facts can be obtained the previous story must be
rehashed and presented with a new feature that will make it appear to be
a later story. It is useless to begin the evening story with a mere
announcement of the fire, for that is no longer news, and the rewrite
man must find a new beginning to attract the attention of his readers.
Perhaps in looking over the morning story, he finds that the fire was
the result of spontaneous combustion in the grain stored in the
elevator. In the morning story this fact was rather insignificant in the
face of the huge loss, and most readers passed over it hastily. The
rewrite man, however, who ha