Type of Leads

1. Pun: A novelty that uses a pun to quirk the reader's attention.

Example:
Western High's trash collectors have been down in the dumps lately.

2. Description: (Site)
Example:
The road to Nsukka in eastern Nigeria is rutted and crumpled, the aging asphalt torn like ragged strips of tar
paper. In the midday heat, diesel trucks hauling cassava and market women to the next town kick up clouds of
fine yellow-orange dust that lingers in the air. Strings of one-story cement buildings in dull pastels with brooding
eaves hug the roadside here and there marking small pinpoints of commerce; hand-lettered signs proclaim the
"Decency Food Canteen," "God's Time Hotel," "Praise the Lord Watch Repairers."

3. Description: (Person)
Example:
Diana Ross is wearing no lipstick. She is lounging around on a hot and muggy late afternoon. The windows are
raised high throughout her Fifth Avenue apartment. She is dressed in black short shorts and a matching
sleeveless blouse that plunges low in the front. She is also wearing fishnet stockings and burgundy suede boots.
Three or four bracelets jangle on her left wrist. Her long nails are the color of pearl, nearly iridescent. She curls up
in a corner of the sofa and sips orange juice through her unpainted lips.

4. Description: (Event)

The air inside the darkened gymnasium is heavy with the heat of an uncommonly prolonged North Carolina
summer. Smoke from some tin containers placed around the basketball court lends a touch of mystery to the
scene.

The thick smoke rolls into the intense light of floor-level arc lamps, then up against a raft of lights hovering like a
Steven Spielberg spaceship. Out of the dark, a white-clad figure appears, bounding a basketball. Michael Jordan
drives for the basket in one of his many crowd-pleasing moves, ball tucked under his arm, then scooped up and
over into the hoop. All of the way to the basket, Jordan's tongue sticks out, curled up in an expression of pure joy
at his defiance not only of imaginary defenders but of gravity itself.

5. Capsule or Punch Lead: Uses a blunt, explosive statement to summarize the most newsworthy feature.
Example:
The dream is over.

The Beatles are back!

One Word: Uses a blunt, explosive word to summarize the most newsworthy feature.

Awesome.

That's the best term to describe the Rattler girls' basketball team, which notched its 15th consecutive win Friday
night.

6. Miscellaneous Freak Leads: Employ ingenious novelty to attract the reader's eye. This list can be
extended indefinitely, to the extent of the reporter's writing ability and imagination (tempered only by
accuracy and relevance).
Example:
For sale: one elephant.

The City Park Commission is thinking about inserting that ad in the newspaper. A curtailed budget makes it
impossible to care for "Bobo", a half-grown elephant lodged in special quarters at Westdale Park.

7. Parody Lead: Mimics a well-known proverb, quotation or phrase.

Example:
Whisky, whisky everywhere, but 'nary a drop to drink.

Such was the case at the City Police Station yesterday when officers poured 100 gallons of bootleg moonshine
into the sewer.

Direct Address Lead: Speaks directly to the reader on a subject of widespread interest or appeal.

Do not expect any pity from the weatherman today. He forecasts a continuation of the bitter Arctic cold wave that
has gripped the city for a week.

8. Staccato: Consists of a series of jerky, exciting phrases, separated by dashes or dots, used if the facts of
the story justify it.

Midnight on the bridge . . .a scream . . .a shot . . .a splash . . .a second shot . . .a third shot. This morning, police
recovered the bodies of Mr. and Mrs. R. E. Murphy, estranged couple, from the Snake River. A bullet wound was
found in the temple of each.

9. Anecdotal Lead : Uses an event to represent the universal experience.

It was 1965 and the Dallas Cowboys were making good use out of an end-around play to Frank Clarke, averaging
17 yards every time a young coach named Tom Landry pulled it out of his expanding bag of tricks.

One day, Clint Murchison, owner of the Cowboys, wondered aloud in Landry's presence how successful the play
might be if Bob Hayes rather than Clarke ran with the ball. Hayes, after all, was the world's fastest human.

"Tom gave a lot of mumbo-jumbo about weak and strong side and I nodded sagely and walked away," Murchison
told the Dallas Morning News three years ago.

A few weeks later, Landry called a reverse. Bob Hayes got the ball. "We lost yardage," Landry recalled this week,
"and I haven't heard from Clint since."