News Writing Structure
Tips for Structuing a Compelling News Media Article
Newspapers and online media want journalists who combine storytelling skills with the ability to put important facts and figures across to their audience. Short, pointed articles need great leads and an engaging format to get reader’s attention and hold it.
Using the proper story structure helps writers present information in an organized and functional manner. So which story structures are appropriate for news writers? How can writers best present news-worthy material to their audience?
There are three basic structures for creating news articles: inverted pyramid, narrative and hourglass. Reporters must work with the format that best fits the needs of their story, the style of media and their reading audience.
The Favorite for News Writing: Inverted Pyramid Structure
Inverted pyramid structure presents facts and news in priority of importance. Using this format a writer places the most important facts and figures at the top of the piece and works down to less-important details and supporting data.
The inverted pyramid structure is favored in news writing for its ability to present the most important information first, with less important details coming at the end of the piece.
This allows time-pressured editors to make quick cuts to articles that don’t fit the formatted space by simply cutting the final paragraphs off as needed. It also presents the facts of the story quickly so readers get the bulk of the information in the first few sentences which is important in a fast-moving environment like news writing.
Telling the Story: Narrative Structure
Telling a story that touches the heart is better achieved with narrative structure. Narrative structure has the same basic structure as a book; a beginning, middle and end. The story focuses on the people involved and offers the opportunity for dialogue and action.
This format works better with feature articles that provide the time and space for character and story development.
Combining Facts and Storytelling: The Hourglass Structure
Hourglass structure involves both the pyramid structure and the narrative structure of news writing. The first part of the article focuses on the facts of the story and compliments the facts by giving a narrative version in the second part.
This story structure is well suited to news items that require a chronological narrative such as crime articles.
Which News Story Structure Is Best?
The news story structure that works best depends on the situation. Taking into account the above recommendations it is generally agreed that the inverted pyramid structure has become, for better or worse, a standard for many reporters and news media. This story structure outperforms the other structures for purposes of editing and transmitting valuable information quickly.
Source Material:
- Jim Hall, ‘Beginning Reporting’
- Ken Blake, Ph.D., Middle Tennessee State University, 'Inverted Pyramid Story Format’
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