Writing styles are continually used by sub-editors in almost every
newsroom to ensure journalists adhere to their organisation’s style.
Sub-editors are often represented or referred to as the ‘news police’ as their
job really is to enforce the governing rules or the framework of their
organisation’s news medium. Today the traditional newsroom is moving from
producing for one medium such as a print which has its own style, to multiple
mediums such as video and web, all of which have their own unique style as
well.
Although all styles employ the basics of correct grammar and standard
news rules such as fair, accurate, attributed, present tense and the inverted
pyramid writing method are all still used along with style guides.
University of Queensland Lecturer, Steve McIlwaine outlines how style
allows for effective communication.
“Style is a broad attempt to impose order, to standardise meaning, just
as the rules of spelling and grammar seek to do on a more detailed level.
Effective communication requires efficient comprehension and comprehension is
maximised if everyone knows the rules.” (McIIwaine, 2005)
McIlwaine sees how communication works best if everyone knows the rules,
likewise readers of a daily paper know what to expect when the house style is
enforced religiously.
North Queensland newspaper The Townsville Bulletin operated by News
Limited predominantly targets local readers “with two out of three Townsville
residents reading the paper at least once a week.” (NewsSpace, 2012) The
Townsville Bulletin which has a long history in the North has a readership of
97,000 for their weekend newspaper and an online readership of 95,000 unique
visitors.
Although both the print and online version of the Townsville Bulletin may
look the same different sub-editing techniques have been used for the print and
online mediums.
The
Townsville Bulletin’s printing style
The Townsville Bulletin which is produced in tabloid format tends to
cover local, crime and sports stories frequently as their cover and lead
stories compared with national papers such as the Australian which generally
has a cover story focused towards national affairs or politics and business.
The Bulletin regularly changes their front cover layout but all show the same
in house style of covering news relevant to the papers distribution network in
North Queensland.
The style of the paper is to run a large heading, often two-three words
followed by a short sub-heading posted either below or above the initial
heading with an author by-line. Articles then have a lead-in sentence which
features an eye-catching capitalised first word. While the layout varies most
days, key elements such as the title, advertisements and logos stay in the same
location. While the copy layout changes depending upon the editorial content
that’s been provided, such as images.
Being a tabloid style newspaper in a garrison city the audience targeted
is predominantly the working classes. (Rogers, 2012) However, ultimately the
editor decides what stories are covered and how they are shown in order to meet
their target audience tastes.
Above: Front covers of the Townsville Bulletin between 2009 and 2012.
The
Townsville Bulletin’s online style
The online version of the Townsville Bulletin produced in a webpage
format is similar to the other News Limited regional newspaper websites. The
site incorporates a selection of stories from the daily paper which have been sub-edited
and published online. The website, like their paper generally has the same
cover story of the paper highlighted first with a featured image.
The TownsvilleBulletin.com.au website sticks to the same template
liberally and only changes special ‘highlighted’ sections such as their
‘crimebusters’ section to look attractive to a wider audience. However,
generally the website’s articles stick with the same familiar theme set by the other
major News Limited websites.
The website features one heading with a by-line, no sub-heading followed
by a lead-in sentence with a bold typeset and capitalised first word. This
style is familiar to the web and highlights the key point of the story allowing
the audience to read the most important information first.
To further assist the reader with reading full stories, techniques that
are effective when writing for the web have been used. These techniques
include; locality of the story in each lead-in sentence of the online copy,
website speed and efficiency, simple navigation and well thought summaries.
Stovall writes about the effective use of summaries in his book Writing
for the Mass Media, highlighting the effectiveness of a well thought summary.
“Informational summaries simply try to give readers an overview of a
larger story. A summary can be as long as two or three sentences, so the writer
has the opportunity to give the readers more information than is normally found
in a lead paragraph of an inverted pyramid new story.” (Stovall, 2005)
Unlike other news websites such as News.com.au the Townsville Bulletin
website rarely features embedded links to further readings, however when these
are included often incorrect links can be found in the copy online.
An error in a story titled,
Make Townsville Work: Housing featured an incorrect link to the comments feed
which leaves messy HTML mark-up visible to the reader. However unlike its
predecessor errors on websites can be corrected, but reflects badly on the professionalism
of the website if not fixed.
In
summary the online layout of the bulletin stays the same in order to keep the
reader familiar with the site content, which assists with allowing the audience
to find current and past stories efficiently.
