What is news?

To be considered news, an event must have one or more of the following qualities:

1. Impact
   If an event has impact on only a limited number of people, it is not as likely to be news if large numbers have been affected. While there may be other circumstances that would make one person’s loss newsworthy—such as the chance to witness that it created or a miraculous escape—the newswriter must always ask, How wide an interest will there be in this item? Unless quite a few readers will be interested, the event is probably not news.
2. Timeliness
   News must be current. Publishing a news item on Man landing on the moon for the first time isn't really News anymore.
3. Prominence
   Events involving well-known people or institutions usually are of greater interest than events involving people who are unknown. But even with these people, not everything they do is news.
4. Proximity
   An event must have some impact on the area where the "Record" circulates. It needs to be "close" to the readers, although not necessarily close physically. For example, what someone from the South Pacific is doing at the General Conference office in Washington, DC, may be of interest even though it is far away. And what is going on in the smallest church in the most remote area of the division may be of interest because it is "close to our hearts."
5. Conflict
   Clashes between institutions or people are newsworthy.
6. The unusual
   When people do extraordinary things, it may merit reporting. Anything that is different from the run-of-the-mill is potential grist for a good story.
7. Currency
   Try to capitalise on things that already are being talked about. For example, if everyone is talking about a Goods and Services Tax, then show what kind of impact it will have on a conference, school or church, or even the buying power of the average Seventh-day Adventist in that area.

Writing the lead

"The lead—the first sentence that introduces a story—either captures the reader or scares them away," say Professor Carl Sessions Stepp of the Maryland University School of Jornalsim. "A good lead is like ice—so slick that before they realise it readers have slid into the middle of your story."

A news lead need not be clever or dramatic. But it must make the reader want to find out more about what happened. "The easiest thing in the world is to stop reading," says Barney Kilgore of the "Wall Street Journal."

Although he says it isn’t possible to offer "a precise formula" for writing leads for news articles, Professor Stepp offers the following guidelines, noting a good lead should:

1. Take less than 25 words.
2. Express a single thought.
3. Be direct.
4. Use action words and active voice. Avoid the verb "to be" and passive introductions such as "there is." Select a main verb that conveys action, movement, something "happening." It’s best if your main verb is "Not" something like "is," "was," "said" or "stated."
5. Have the dominating element—the single most gripping point—as near the beginning of the sentence as possible.
6. Tell the news itself, not circumstances surrounding the news. Avoid having the main verb be "announced," "took the stand," "called a press conference" or similar words.
7. Avoid non-essential information: long titles, full names of government agencies, unnecessary attribution, acronyms, jargon. That comes later, if at all.
8. Interest you as a reader.

Structuring an news article

Most news articles should be written in what is called the "inverted pyramid" style.

The lead should summarise the most important aspect of what happened, and the balance of the article should provide other facts in descending order of importance. As a writer, you should assume the editor will trim the article from the bottom up, paragraph by paragraph.

Using quotes and attributes

One of the greatest weaknesses in Seventh-day Adventist news writing is the failure of reporters to get input from others when reporting an event.

Few Seventh-day Adventist news articles include any quotes at all. And as a result, few reports are anywhere near as readable or as punchy as they could be. Quotes create variety, even though only one person writes the article.

Quotes also enhance credibility. We expect news articles to give us facts. Thus, the reporter is obligated to provide facts not opinions.

However, opinions about facts are often more interesting than the facts themselves. Thus the crucial thing is that we clearly delineate between the two—and quotes are useful in accomplishing this.

While it is out of place for the reporter to make such statements as, "This is the best thing ever done for youth in the history of the conference," it is quite acceptable to quote someone else who makes such a statement. The statement, which is an opinion, may be right or it may be wrong. But the person said it. And that is news.

Not only do quotes enhance news reports by projecting an image of objectivity, they also make the article easier to read. They function in news articles in much the same way conversation does in story writing. They provide both visual and organisational belief.

Even though a person may have attended the function and seen everything that was done from beginning to end, they should not feel qualified to write about it without having spoken with at least three or four people to get their reactions, background details, plans for future events and the like. Quote from one of the event’s organisers, from a participant, and from a beneficiary of the service provided.

Avoiding clichés, jargon and other pitfalls

News writers who write for Seventh-day Adventist publications need to write to Seventh-day Adventists about Seventh-day Adventist activities—but they need to do it in such a way that their statements will be comprehensible to any person who might happen to pick up the publication.

Instead of talking about a worker, why not say minister, teacher, literature evangelist, Sanitarium Health Food Company employee or church employee. Similarly, we cannot assume that everyone understands what AUC, PNGUM, WPUM, CPUM, ADRA, SPC, SPD and a host of other Seventh-day Adventist acronyms stand for. Thus, never use an acronym or any other form of abbreviation until the entity’s name has been written in full.

Names of individuals cause editors more bother than almost any other aspect of our work. Please, please, please, give us people’s names and not their initials.