What makes a story Newsworthy

                     

“When a dog bites a man, that is not news … But if a man bites a dog that is news.”

John B. Bogart (1845-1921)

City Editor of the New York Sun     

So what makes a news story newsworthy? To be newsworthy, a story must be factual and presented in an interesting manner. The news story must contain information that is of broad interest to an intended audience. To be newsworthy, a news story should contain some of the following elements:

Impact:  How many people were affected by an event? A problem with the electricity utility line that causes a blackout for several hours in the city has an impact because it affects your audience directly. A report that 10 children died in a fire at school has an impact too, because the audience will have a strong emotional response to the story.


Timeliness: Did something just happen or is it going to happen very soon? In a weekly newspaper or magazine, anything that happened since the previous edition can be considered timely. As compared to a 24 hour news channel the timeliest news will be in a breaking news report or something that a reporter is covering live at a scene.

Prominence:  Does the story concern a well known person or place? People are always interested in well known people, places and events. Activities or events become news if a prominent person is involved like a musician or film star. A plane crash in Ethiopia would make the front page headlines if the prime minister or president were on board the plane.

Controversy:  Are people in a disagreement over something? People are generally interested in stories that involve conflict, tensions, opposing point of views or actions. People like to take sides and see whose position will win. Conflict doesn’t always mean having one person’s view against another. It could also entail stories such as a UN Humanitarians trying to battle the cholera epidemic in Haiti or efforts to rescue thousands of displaced people from a flood in Pakistan.

Proximity:  Did something happen near your home or in your neighborhood? Something that happens close by always attracts the interest of the reader more than something that has happened far away. A train accident in China will not be front page news in a newspaper in Somaliland unless it was carrying passengers from Somaliland.

Unusual: Did something unusual happen? A news story that is extraordinary and unexpected will always appeal to readers. As the popular saying in journalism goes, “When a dog bites a man that is not news. But when a man bites a dog that is news.”

Human Interest: Did the story catch your interest? Was it emotional or did it win your sympathy? A personal story about people has universal appeal. A story of a world famous person who grew up in a place of conflict is a story involving a prominent person and is an unusual story that people can discuss among their friends.

Different groups of people have different lifestyles and concerns, which make them interested in different types of news.

A radio news program targeted at younger listeners might include stories about music and sports stars that would not be featured in a business newspaper aimed at older, wealthier readers.

A weekly magazine that covers medical news would report on the testing of an experimental drug because the doctors who read the publication presumably would be interested. But unless the drug is believed to cure a well-known disease, most general interest local newspapers would ignore the story. The exception might be the newspaper in the community where the research is being conducted.

News organizations see their work as a public service, so news is made up of information that people need to know in order to go about their daily lives and to be productive citizens in a democracy. However, most news organizations are also businesses that have to make a profit to survive, so the news also includes items that will draw an audience; Stories people may want to know about just because they’re interesting.