Meeting: Lede With The News

We took a bit of a step back with ledes on this exercise. The news isn't that things were discussed; it's what was done or not done. Too many ledes or section starts defaulted to things were discussed. That's not the news, right?

These were ledes that went in that direction:

The Ingham County Commission met yesterday afternoon, addressing several items within the county, both economic and social.

... and ...

The Grand Ledge School Board discussed several issues at its meeting last night.

The problem here is that the news isn't that the commission or school board addressed items; it's what the items were that were addressed. From this lede, you don't know if they gave out ribbons to old ladies or declared war on Russia. It's too vague. Those ledes sound like this imaginary football game story lede:

The MSU football team played a game Saturday night.


And that's a lede we'd never write, right? These next ledes were better in that regard:

The Ingham County Commission met yesterday afternoon to discuss a new condominium development, purchasing pistols, their salary, and to honor two girls who saved a child from the water.

... and ...

The Grand Ledge School Board discussed its budget, evolution vs. creationism in textbooks and summer school at its meeting last night.

You do identify what the issues were, but it still falls short of ultimate outcome and end result; that being what actions they took regarding these issues: for example, with the commission meeting they approved a new condominium development, considered new gun restrictions, rejected increasing their salaries. You did note that they honored the girls.

Those ledes sound like this modified game lede:

The MSU football team played Notre Dame Saturday night.

And that lede still doesn't go far enough toward ultimate outcome and end result.
This modified football lede does:

The MSU football team beat Notre Dame 63-0 Saturday night.

So, now let's apply that same fixation on end result on this school board lede:

The Grand Ledge School Board approved a new budget and voted to keep evolution-based textbooks and summer school at its meeting last night.

Much better, right? You now know precisely how things ended.

But it wasn't necessary that you include every element in your lede. A big part of journalism is deciding what is most newsworthy, and ranking that news accordingly (or even excluding things if you feel the newsworthiness was limited or simply not there).

This commission lede zeroed in on a single topic:

The Ingham County Commission met today and approved plans for a luxury condominium development on Elkhart Lake.

And that's fine. I'm not saying the development was necessarily the lede item; I think valid arguments could be made for any of the items being the most interesting, relevant and/or useful. Readers don't need us to summarize a whole meeting; they could probably Google an agenda themselves. What they need journalists for is to make sense of the news and tell them what matters most.

So don't be afraid to make decisions, based on the evidence and what may impact or interest readers the most.

One commission lede took ultimate outcome beyond the meeting. Remember the gun restriction decision was pushed to the next meeting? Well, this was one of your ledes:

The Ingham County Commission promised to consider a proposal requesting a three-day wait before a pistol, could be bought, after Sheriff Gus DiCesare suggested it at yesterday's commission meeting.

This is what I call a forward-looking lede; one that goes beyond what happened at an event, and is centered in what that means going forward, or what action is next as a result. When we talk about ultimate outcome, the outcome isn't that the board talked about it; it's that the board will talk about it some more. That's the latest and newest news.