Page:Newspaper writing and editing.djvu/217

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burglaries, as reported in the morning papers, may be found to have some peculiar details in common, and this fact may give rise to the conjecture, as the feature of the rewritten story, that they were the work of the same burglars. A local storm story when rewritten may have as a feature the extent of the storm as shown by telegraph stories received after the first story was written. A fire, the origin of which was unknown when the first story was written, may be connected with other recent fires that broke out under similar conditions, and the probability of all of them being the work of a "firebug" may be pointed out in the rewritten story. By seeking relations between events, the newspaper worker often finds important features for stories to be rewritten.

"Follow-up" Stories. In "follow-up" stories the gathering of new details is the first step necessary to rewriting. Not infrequently the latest details can be obtained by telephone, and the "follow-up" story can be written in the office in as short a time as a rewrite story that requires no additional facts. The condition of a victim of an accident, for example, may be ascertained by telephoning to his home or to the hospital where he was taken, and the facts thus obtained may be put at the very beginning of the "follow-up" story. More often the reporter must go out to get the latest developments of the event, just as he would for a first story. However obtained, the new particulars are the important ones to be emphasized in the lead.

Some of the different directions in which a story may be "followed up" are similar to those suggested for rewrite stories; they are: (1) causes and motives other than those given in the first story if these are uncertain or inadequate, (2) results and consequences