News Leads need not always be simple and straightforward. There are Simple or Single-incident Leads; but there are also Multiple Point Leads and Quotation Leads.
# Simple or Single-incident Leads
These are the most common leads found in a newspaper. They are uncluttered, and built on the single most important point in a news report.
CHENNAI: The mercury fell sharply as the city experienced its first burst of summer rain today.
NEW DELHI: Eight out-of-power chief ministers joined hands today to float a new political front.
#Multiple-point Leads
These leads summarise two or three competing points in the first sentence. The result, at times, can be long and unwieldy leads. The reporter has to exericse great care to esnure that clarity is not lost.
TIRUCHIRAPALLI/NEW DELHI: The shocking expose of a teenager performing a Caesarean operation to get into the record books has elicited a strong response from authorities, with Tamil Nadu ordering a probe into the alleged surgery and the Centre promising to take severe action if its is found to be true.
# Quotation Leads
These are not easy to handle. The quote has to be striking if it is to catch the attention of the reader. Otherwise, the lead will fall flat as happened to this lead.
NEW Delhi: “We will remove corruption from the face of Delhi,” the Aam Aadmi Party leader promised in his election speech in Delhi today.
There is nothing new or fresh in this quote. The Aam Aadmi Party leaders have been saying this for six months now.
However, a remark scribbled on a school blackboard that was burnt by a mob protesting a statement of the school principal has great irony, and made a nice lead.
SOPORE: “Why are you behaving like a bad boy,” reads the neat text someone chalked on the blackboard in the Alamdar High School just hours before the school was vandalised.
Kind of Leads I: Who, What, Why
Kinds of Leads II: When, Where and How
Kinds of Leads IV: Question, Suspense
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