Parts of a newspaper

Front Page (A section)

Most important stories

For larger papers (Post) mostly national and international news.

Local stories only make the front of big papers if they are ground breaking.

Jump page

The page on which stories are continued or jumped.

At the bottom of the story there will be smaller print, sometimes in italics that says “continued on page . . . “

A section

In addition to jumps from the front page, the masthead, editorial page, and obits are usually found in the A section.

The masthead is the box, usually on the second page (A2) that contains information for the paper – when it’s printed, publisher name, rates, and contact info.

Regional/Local (B section)

Front page of the B section is reserved for local news.

This covers police, schools, county/city government.

Sports/Life (C section)

The sports page includes national, and local sports stories and features.

Sometimes for smaller papers the life/styles section is found in the C section with sports. This includes stories about living, arts, fashion, reviews.

Classifieds (D Section)

Contains help wanted, to do, for sale, for rent etc.

Online Media Layouts

First page is usually biggest story. Reserved for breaking news and changes as often as needed.

The Scroll

Online media is broken into sections.

You can select the sections at either a help bar at the top of the page or scroll towards the bottom.

Types of stories

Hard news.This is hard core facts,

information.Includes meeting

stories, breaking news, police action, fire and rescue.

Active voice, no flowery words, gets right to the point.

You have to keep in mind – what do people need to really know.

Types of Stories

ObitsInformation about

people who have died.

Includes age, location, past history of that person’s life.

Types of Stories

EditorialsOpinions from the

editors of the paper.Letters written by

readers of the paper.

Types of Stories

FeaturesMuch longer than a

news story.Engages a reader.Uses active voice and

lots of descriptions.Written to pull the

reader into the story.

Types of Stories

ReviewsDiscusses what the

writer thought of books, movies, new music, restaurants, etc.

Types of Stories

SportsTells the scores, big

plays, transactions of pro teams, profiles on players etc.