Thursday, September 29, 2011

Graded Ledes: How Specific Do You Get?

A few of you included the specific address of the robbed convenience store in your ledes. And some of you even had the exact description of the SUV; a 2006 Ford Explorer.

I don't think it was wrong to have such specifics in the lede, but at the same time I'm not sure they were necessary. Unless specifics add something contextual and meaningful to a lede, you may want to consider using a more generic identifier in the lede, and then offer the specific identifier on second reference.

In this case, whether it's a Ford Explorer or a Cadillac Escalade or a Hummer or whatever doesn't appreciably change a reader's understanding of the story. Now, if the vehicle and baby were still at large, then the specific info would be more newsworthy ... such as:

Police tonight were looking for a 2006 Ford Explorer carrying a six-month-old girl that was carjacked during a daylight robbery at at East Lansing Quik Shoppe Wednesday afternoon.

That's a lede I made up. Now, the specific is actionable information that's useful to an audience, and therefore clearly worthy of the lede.

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