Lesson 2 of 7 · about 14 minutes
Ledes That Earn the Second Paragraph
You'll be able to
- Write a hard news lede of about 30 words that leads with the change
- Write a delayed lede and an anecdotal lede that pay off within three paragraphs
- Choose the right lede type for the story and the reader
- Fix the common failures: throat-clearing, agenda order, the quote lede and the question lede
The lede has one job: make the second paragraph worth reading. Everything else is decoration. Most readers decide in a sentence or two whether to keep going, and on a phone they decide with their thumb.
Hard news, delayed and anecdotal ledes will cover nearly everything you write. Learn all of them, then learn when each one is the wrong choice.
Hard news
The hard news lede states the change. Who did what, to whom, and what it means. It belongs on anything fresh that a reader needs: a vote, a ruling by an agency, an arrest, a budget, a closure. Aim for about 25 to 35 words.
Build it from your point sentence. The point sentence is already the answer to "what happened and why should I care." The lede is that answer polished for a stranger.
Lead with the impact on people and save the institution's procedure for later in the sentence. "The board voted" is the mechanism. "Water bills will rise 22 percent" is the news. Usually you can get both into one sentence, with the impact first.
Before and after: hard news
Before:
At its regular meeting held Tuesday evening at the district office, the Marlow Water and Sewer District board of trustees considered a number of agenda items, including a proposed adjustment to residential rates.
That is 33 words and the reader still does not know what happened. Date, place, the word "regular," the agenda: all throat-clearing. "Adjustment" hides the direction.
After:
Marlow water bills will rise 22 percent in July, about $102 a year for a typical home, after the district board voted 3 to 2 Tuesday to pay for replacing 1960s pipes.
Thirty-two words this time. Every one does work.
Things that do not belong in a hard news lede unless they are the news: the full name of the agency (a short form is fine on first reference in the lede, spell it out in the second paragraph), the location of the meeting, the time, every number you have. One or two numbers is the limit. A lede with five figures in it reads like a spreadsheet.
Delayed
The delayed lede opens on a detail that sets up the news, then delivers it in the second or third paragraph. It works when the story is not breaking, when readers may already know the basic fact, or when a single detail explains the stakes better than a summary can.
Before and after: delayed
The facts: the Fenwick road department has three snowplows. Two are more than 25 years old. The county commission will vote on a $2.3 million road bond in November that includes two new trucks.
A hard news version is fine, but flat when the vote is weeks away:
Fenwick County voters will decide in November on a $2.3 million road bond that would buy two snowplows and repave 14 miles of county road.
The delayed version:
The newest snowplow in Fenwick County was built the year the county's high school seniors were born. The oldest has 412,000 miles on it and a heater that works only on the passenger side.
In November, voters will decide whether to replace them. The $2.3 million road bond on the ballot would buy two plows and repave 14 miles of county road, and it would cost the owner of a $250,000 home about $41 a year, according to the county clerk's estimate.
The detail does work: it shows the problem before naming the remedy. And the news arrives in paragraph two, not paragraph nine.
Anecdotal
The anecdotal lede opens with a small scene about one person, then pulls back to the larger story in a nut graf. Features use it. So do investigations, when the numbers are big and abstract and a reader needs a face to hold onto.
The person must be typical of what the data shows, not the most dramatic case you found. And the scene must be short, usually two to four sentences, before you hand off.
Before and after: anecdotal
Before:
Carol Mertz has lived in Marlow for 41 years. She was born in the old hospital on Front Street, which is now a dental office. She raised three children here, two of whom moved to the city. She loves her garden, where she grows tomatoes and squash, and she volunteers at the food pantry on Thursdays. She is retired from the school district, where she worked in the front office for 26 years.
Lovely woman. No story. Five sentences and nothing has happened.
After:
Carol Mertz keeps her water bills in a shoebox, 12 months to a rubber band. On Tuesday night she brought the whole box to the district office and set it on the table in front of the board.
"I'm on a fixed income," said Mertz, 68, a retired school secretary. "Every one of these went up."
Two hours later the board voted 3 to 2 to raise residential water rates 22 percent starting July 1, about $102 a year for a typical household.
The scene is short. It is tied to the action. The nut graf lands in paragraph three. And Mertz is a typical case: a long-time resident on a fixed income, which describes a lot of Marlow's customers.
Choosing
| Situation | Usually best | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Something happened in the last 24 hours that people need to know | Hard news | Readers want the fact. Make them wait and they get it somewhere else. |
| A vote or decision coming up, news already known | Delayed | One detail can explain the stakes better than a summary. |
| Big numbers, slow problem, investigation or feature | Anecdotal | A person makes the abstract concrete. |
| Deaths, injuries, disasters | Hard news | A cute scene here reads as tasteless. |
| Follow-up to a story you already broke | Delayed or hard news on the new fact | Lead with what is new since last time. |
When in doubt, write the hard news lede. It is almost never wrong. It is just sometimes dull.
Ledes that fail
Most weak ledes fall into a few habits. Learn to spot them in your own drafts.
- The agenda lede. The board took up several items Tuesday. Tells the reader nothing happened worth naming.
- The quote lede. "This is a sad day for our town," said Mayor Ellen Park. The reader does not yet know what day or why. Quotes react to news. Give them something to react to first.
- The question lede. Have you ever wondered where your tax dollars go? No. And you have just told the reader you are about to explain something they did not ask about.
- The dictionary lede. Webster's defines "infrastructure" as... High school essay. Cut it.
- The weather lede. It was a cold and gray evening as residents filed into the district office. Unless the weather caused the news, it is filler.
- The big-picture lede. Across the country, small towns are struggling with aging infrastructure. Maybe true, but you are writing about one town. Start there.
A quick test: cover your lede and read the second paragraph. If the story still makes sense, the first paragraph may be throat-clearing. Try cutting it and see whether paragraph two is your real lede. Surprisingly often, it is.
Try it
Use this invented set of facts: The Halvern school board voted 5 to 0 Monday to start the school day 50 minutes later, at 8:40 a.m., beginning next fall. The change follows a parent survey in which 71 percent of 1,240 responding families supported a later start. Bus routes will be redrawn and the district says it will need three more drivers. A high school junior, Priya Lal, spoke in favor, saying she leaves home at 6:35 a.m. now.
- Write a hard news lede of 35 words or fewer.
- Write a delayed lede that reaches the vote by the third paragraph.
- Write an anecdotal lede built on the student, with a nut graf by paragraph three or four.
- Run the cover test on each: hide the first paragraph and see whether the second works alone.
- Decide which one you would publish the morning after the vote, and write one sentence explaining why.
Check yourself
1. A city council voted at 10 p.m. last night to close the only public pool. Which lede type fits best for a story going up this morning?
Fresh news people need to know about gets a hard news lede. Save the scene for a follow-up or a feature.
2. What is the main risk of an anecdotal lede?
An anecdote has to be representative and it has to hand off to a nut graf quickly. An odd case that does not match the data misleads readers.
3. Which is the strongest hard news lede?
It leads with who acted, what they did, when it starts and what it saves. The others delay or never reach the news.
4. Roughly how long should a hard news lede usually be?
A common newsroom target for a summary lede is around 25 to 35 words. Long enough to carry the change, short enough to read in one breath.
5. A delayed lede opens with a detail and holds back the news. When should the news arrive?
The delay is a short setup, not a mystery novel. Hold it too long and readers leave before they learn why they are there.
Terms in this lesson
- Lede
- The opening sentence or paragraph of an article. Spelled this way in newsrooms to tell it apart from lead, the metal.
- Hard news lede
- A summary opening that states the most important change right away. Also called a summary or straight lede.
- Delayed lede
- An opening that starts with a telling detail or setup and reaches the news within a few paragraphs.
- Anecdotal lede
- An opening built on a short scene about one person or moment that stands for the larger story.
- Throat-clearing
- Opening words that delay the point without adding anything, like background, the date of the meeting or the agenda.
Sources
- Chip Scanlan, The Nut Graf, Part I (Poynter) checked 2026-10