It occurs to me occasionally that my profession comes with its own experiences and jargon I can't expect our readers to understand without explanation.
Like any profession, we had to make up words that, though they seem simple, have a lot deeper meaning to those who use them on a day-to-day basis. I decided to define some of the more familiar terms so our readers can get a deeper understanding of what they mean, not only based on how a dictionary would define them, but instead as a staff writer understands them.*
Deadline: Something which motivates sources to call you back or send you that photo they have been putting off for the last week.
Editor: The title staff writers evoke instead of telling persistent callers, “I don't know” or “no."
Lede: The first paragraph in any story. The only paragraph that isn't an iambic pentameter poem about our dogs because, let's be honest, this is the only paragraph anyone reads.
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Election night: A 20-hour long pizza party that all reporters are mandated to attend long after they want to go home.
Bylines: A worthless currency news staff accept in lieu of higher pay (because they don't really have any other choice).
Press release: An item that arrives by the hundreds but only while staff is trying to write their own stories or if the newspaper is literally in the process of printing.
Submitted photo: A cell phone image that would print blurry the size of a stamp, but the only size the sender knows how to send.
Young newspaper audience: A myth created to keep staff writers from panicking about their career choice.
Headline: A chance for the writers to be witty against their better judgement or try out new puns.
Expendable income: No definition found.
Beat: A life sentence covering the same subject forever. Punishment for a job well done.
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Off the record: A statement a source makes before saying something so irrelevant you never intended to print it in the first place.
Above the fold: The newspaper equivalent of being “King of the hill."
No news day: A bad omen. A day that will start out boring but end with a big tragedy of some sort after everyone has clocked out.
Caption: Two lines of print below a photo that include almost enough information to steal the subject's identity.
Correction: The bane of a writer’s existence. Will make any writer sick to their stomach and question their existence.
Freelancer: An entity without which some writers would never see their families.
Hard news: Impactful, often negative, news that readers complain about.
Soft news: News stories on lighter, often positive, subject matter that the above readers demand, but refuse to read.
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Public notice: Everything anyone wants to know about their local government, printed in the newspaper but read by nobody.
News hole: The place to shove all the information you gathered throughout the week.
*The above definitions are not to be taken seriously. PineandLakes Echo Journal and Travis Grimler cannot be held responsible for anyone who decides to take these terms seriously.
