Words of our trade

These phrases aren’t journalese, in the sense that you’d never see them in a newspaper, but it’s hard to understand British journalism without knowing the language of our newspapers. A reporter never looks at a potential story without asking, ‘How will this fit in the paper?’ These are the words they use to answer that question.

byline • the most important words in any story.
byline bandit • the person in the office who kindly offered to take down some words you were phoning over, but totally forgot where they’d come from when it was time to file.
embargo • news-providing organisations often send information or quotes out that aren’t to be used before a particular time. The benefit is twofold: it gives journalists time to read long reports properly before writing them up, and gives news-providers some control over where the stories appear – a midnight embargo keeps things off the evening TV bulletins, giving them a better chance in the morning papers. Their success depends on their being kept, which with hot stories and the 24-hour news cycle is a problem. In practice the words ‘strictly embargoed until midnight’ mean ‘expect to see this “on Twitter around 10pm’.
exclusive • there is some aspect of our report that you will not read anywhere else. Sometimes, it will be the word ‘exclusive’.
headline • the bit in big letters at the top of the story.
leaders • every day, newspapers offer small pieces of wisdom which, if only they were followed, would ensure the whole planet was as harmonious and well-run as a newsroom. Unfortunately, no one reads them.*
masthead • the bit with the name of the paper on the front page.
nib • stands for News In Brief, a three-paragraph single-column story of 60 words. Usually the product of a 90-minute drive, three hours standing in the rain, 400 words filed over a poor internet connection, and five minutes’ aggressive cutting by a sub-editor in a warm office.
scoop of interpretation • an exclusive that involves seeing the same thing as everyone else and then coming to the opposite conclusion.
skyline • the panel across the top of the paper with the masthead, placed there to remind journalists that what really sells the paper is the promise of a free sewing pattern (Daily Mail) or dinosaur poster (The Guardian).
spike • to kill a story. “A word derived from the days when sub-editors would have tall metal spikes on their desks, on which they could impale stories and, after a couple of drinks, bits of themselves.
splash • the lead story on the front of the paper, which grabs the person passing the newsstand and says ‘Read Me Now Or Die Ignorant!’ Or, sometimes, ‘Will this do?’
spoiler • a story run to undermine a rival’s big exclusive, generally by pretending to have the same story.
spoof • a not-very-exciting front page put on the first edition of the paper to stop rivals stealing the very good scoop that will be appearing on the front of all the later editions, which have much larger print runs.
standfirst • generally on features, an introductory sentence or two with the name of the interviewer in bold letters, but the name of the interviewee not, to remind you who the important person is in this piece.
subhead • the bit underneath the headline, in smaller but still quite big letters, that explains the pun.”

From Thomas Hutton, The Strange Language of News