Changing Ireland Video

No.1 secret to writing news - H5W

Changing Ireland Editor, Allen Meagher, explains the H5W system of writing a news release.

What are the essential details that should be included in a news article?

For more on this, see the Changing Ireland Introduction to Media Skills

No. 2 secret to writing news - inverted pyramids

Changing Ireland Editor, Allen Meagher shows one of the secrets to writing news, the inverted pyramid shape. This workshop was held in Wexford.

News stories are not structured like essays, or drama. Get the bones of the story in the first paragraph, and use the rest of the article to flesh out the detail.

This makes it easier for the media to scan the story, decide if they want it, and edit it to length.

For more on this, see the Changing Ireland Introduction to Media Skills

PR insight: why the media love press releases

Changing Ireland editor, Allen Meagher, gives an insight into the world of modern journalism. The easier you make it for the busy journalist to get the story, the better your chances are of being published.

A press release, which has all the details (as covered in H5W), and is structured properly, (using the inverted pyramid) is easier to copy, paste, and edit into an article for the newsdesk.