With this primer on newsroom lingo, step inside the hallowed, newsprint-stained halls hardly ever portrayed correctly on TV and in movies!
- Angle: What's your angle? How are you approaching a story topic?
Breakout: A box that pulls out information to highlight key parts of a story, alert readers to a meeting on the issue being written about, etc.
Buried: The story ended up running in a position that's many pages into the paper -- buried in the back.
Bust: An error in a headline -- "hed bust."
By: Shorthand for a byline. Double byline is two authors.
Chase: A page has already gone to press, but a fix, update or breaking news needs to get in the paper. That page is corrected and sent back to the press -- "chased."
CMYK: Cyan, magenta, yellow and black. The four color plates used at the press to create color on the page. Thus, if editors find an error in text, newspapers can save money by just chasing the black plate.
CQ: Correct. A reporter will often make an invisible "cq" notation after, say, a weirdly spelled name in copy to alert others checking the story that the name is indeed spelled correctly.
Cutlines (or cuts): Photo captions. When a page is running late for the press, for example, editors may be asked to just check the "heds and cuts" -- headlines and captions -- for errors.
Dateline: The city from which the story originates.
Deadline: Reporters, editors and paginators all have staggered deadlines to get the finished product to the press by the final deadline -- what's needed to get the paper out on the street and on porches in time. But if a journalist tells you, "I'm on deadline," that refers to any period of time before that. Translation: I'm working and can't be interrupted.
First run: The first newspapers that come off the press that night, usually with slightly "off" color as the pressmen can used these editions to adjust the color as needed. Some newspapers will keep an editor around at night to check the first run for major errors. And since the press pauses after the first run anyway, needed fixes can get on for the main run.
Graf: Paragraph. Seen often on wire copy, like when editors are alerted that a change has been made in the 5th graf.
Hed, deck, subhed, jumphed: The headline, the secondary headline below the main headline, short headlines within stories, and the headline on the story jump.
Hook: What's the part about your story that makes it especially timely, fresh or newsworthy? That's the hook.
Kill: The story that was scheduled to be put out that night ain't gonna happen. (i.e. "The council story is a kill.") Or what your editor might do to you if you miss a deadline.
Lede: The beginning of the story. And that part which is most prone to a rewrite, because the catchiness of the lede determines whether the reader will continue with the story.
Lede, offlede, CP, downpage: The positions that stories are assigned on an open (free of ads) page, such as the front page. The lede is the main story, usually stripped (across the top) or running two columns or less down the side, designated with the heaviest headline (darkest, thickest font). The offlede is the secondary story. The CP is the centerpiece, often a package with more than one photo and possibly with a more feature angle. Sometimes the lede is the centerpiece, the focus of the page. And the downpage story is at the bottom of the page.
Mast: The masthed lists the key players in the newspaper's operation, as well as giving readers contact information.
Mug: A small, usually half-column photo.
Pullquote: Designers often pull a good quote out of a story and float it in the text in a larger font to draw readers into the story.
Put to bed: The paper is put to bed when all of the pages are at the press and no chases are needed.
Rail: One column down the side of a page, often filled with teasers, weather, lotto, index, etc. Some big stories will also warrant a rail filled with quotes or other key information.
Refer: A blurb that takes readers to something on another page, such as a story related to the one they're reading or extra information available online.
Replate: When the press has to put on a new page that has been chased. These cost money, so editors will often weigh whether a fix is worth a replate.
Rim: The first line of copy editing defense. After a story is rimmed, it then goes through the slot -- senior editing staff -- for a final read before the designer can "let the page go."
Scoop: Getting the story before anyone else.
Slug: One or two words that describe the story for the benefit of editors and designers keeping track of the story, and used by wire services to quickly describe the story in a list of available copy scanned by newspapers.
Soft strip: An offlede running across the top of the page with a lighter headline to indicate it's not the lede story.
Stet: A notation an editor makes on a page proof when he or she indicated a correction, but then wants to make sure the designer does not make that correction. (Interpret "stet" as "oops.")
Tag: A note at the end of the story, such as the reporter's contact information or "The Associated Press contributed to this story."
Teaser: Blurbs that alert readers -- often combining text and photos -- to special features inside the paper.
Wheaties test: Whether readers will be able to keep their breakfast down after reading a particular story or seeing a particular photo in the paper while munching on their morning cereal.
Writethru: A wire service continually sends updated stories as news develops or stories need to be fixed. These are slugged numerically as writethrus, so editors can grab the most recent one.
Zone: A newspaper that zones has to send editions to different geographical locations within its coverage area, and the zone stories are swapped into the edition where they'll be of most interest to those readers (i.e. regional council meetings, road projects).