Lead

How it is used

Editors say the lead is buried when the key fact appears too late. A hard news lead answers the main questions in one sentence; a delayed or anecdotal lead starts with a scene. Lead also means the top story of a bulletin or a promising piece of information to follow up.

Example sentences

1. Your lead is too long; tell me who, what and where in under thirty words.

2. The police have no strong leads in the case so far.

Common collocations

• write a lead
• bury the lead
• hard news lead
• strong lead
• follow a lead

Related terms

• inverted pyramidA way of writing news in which the most important facts come first and the less important details follow, so the story can be cut from the bottom.
• the five WsThe basic questions every news story should answer: who, what, when, where and why, usually with how added as well.
• news storyA single piece of reporting about a recent event or issue, published in print or online or broadcast on radio or television.
• angleThe particular point of view or focus a journalist chooses for a story, which decides which facts and voices come first.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

• lead · Marketing
• lead · Digital Marketing & SEO
• lead · Sales & Retail

More terms: Reporting and News Writing

• journalist
• reporter
• breaking news
• coverage
• correspondent
• byline
• beat
• newsworthy
• follow-up