How to Write Newsworthy Articles
News is any information that has been published, or has been broadcast, about a particular subject.
In some ways, the news can be good or bad – it can teach us, inspire us and illuminate our lives; it can also be depressing, savage and unnecessarily harsh. It can be used to spread freedom of speech and justice, but it can only work if people are determined to use it that way.
The news can be about anything that has happened, but it should be about something significant, interesting and about people. For example, if a farm wall collapses and kills two cows, that may be interesting and important to some people, but it would not make any newspapers tomorrow.
A news article must contain the five Ws: who, what, where, when and why. These are the main things a reader needs to know about the story, and it is your job to tell them.
Start your news with a lead that grabs and hooks your reader’s attention right away, and follow this up by listing the main facts. This is done in what is called the “inverted pyramid” approach, and it will give your reader a quick overview of the topic.
You must also be clear where you got the information for your story. This can be from interviews, court documents or census records. You should list these sources in your article, and you should include any direct quotes or paraphrasing that was used to cite the source.