Newspaper Terms
Advertisement (or Ad)
Box
Refers to type that is framed in a border to give it prominence. Break
Initial news coverage of an event.
Printed notice of something for sale paid for by the advertiser. Budget
Angle
The lineup of news stories scheduled for the next day’s newspaper.
The approach or perspective from which a news fact or event is viewed, or the emphasis chosen for a story. Art
Bumped heads
Similar headlines running side by side that create monotony and the tendency to read across.
Any photo, map graph or illustration.
Byline
Assignment
The author’s name, which is printed at the beginning of an article.
A story a reporter is given to cover.
Camera-ready
Associated Press Stylebook (or AP
Stylebook)
The standard reference source for reporters and editors on word usage, libel, numbers, titles, capitalization and commonly used words and phrases. Banner
Refers to anything that is in its finished form - no further changes are needed before it is published in the paper.
Caption
Headline or text accompanying a picture or illustration; also called a cutline.
A headline stretching across the top of a page.
Circulation
Beat
The total number of copies of a publication distributed to subscribers and vendors in one day.
A reporter’s regular assignment, for covering news like sports or
Clip Art
Bleed
A variety of art provided to newspapers on a subscription basis, for use in ads.
An illustration filling one or more margins and running off the edge of the page or border; used frequently in magazines and advertisements.
Column
The main part of a story.
The arrangement of horizontal lines of type, usually
10 to 14 picas wide, in a news story; also, an article appearing regularly written by a particular writer or
“columnist.”
Body type
Columnist
Body Copy
Type used in stories, not in headlines; generally under 12-point size; opposite of display type. www.jsprinting.com A person who writes a regular column giving a personal opinion.
Newspaper Terms
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Copy
Editorial
All material for publication, whether written stories or pictures.
An article expressing the opinion of the newspaper regarding a certain subject.
Copy Editor
Em
The person who corrects or edits copy written by a reporter and writes headlines.
Copyediting
Correcting, improving and marking copy to be printed. Unit of measuring column widths. An em (for the letter M) is a square of any given size of type, and is most frequently used as the unit in measuring “pica”
(the width of an em in 12-point type).
En
Half of an em.
Cover
To gather information and get facts for a story.
Exclusive
A story printed by only one paper; a scoop.
Credit line
See photo credit
Face
The style of type.
Dateline
The line at the beginning of a story giving the place and date of the articles origination.
Feature
Deadline
A story in which the interest lies in some factor other than the news value, usually to entertain.
A time at which all copy for an edition must be submitted. Filler
A “bank” or section of a headline.
Short informational stories or advertisements, usually timeless, used to fill small spaces where needed. Dummy
Flag
Deck
A preliminary layout of a newspaper page, showing the placement of stories, headlines, pictures and advertisements. Ears
Space at the top of the front page on each side of the newspaper’s name where ads, weather news, index to pages or announcement of special features appears. Edition
The issue for one press run: home edition, state edition, final home edition, extra.
Editor
A person who directs the editorial policies; or a person who decides what news will go in the paper and where it will appear www.jsprinting.com The printed title (i.e., name and logo) of a newspaper at the