Journalism lingo - a guide

uhhhhhh ........ no.


But you get points for creativity.

 

Not newspaper-specific, but on more than one occasion, I have needed to unfuck a story. Or fuck it down or de-fuckify it.

Agate needs that treatment a lot.

Tombstone Heads, by the way.

Widow.

 

Tombstone heads. Wow. That takes me back.

 

It could be senility, but I'm pretty sure we "railroaded" a few stories in my day based on this description.

 

I'd look at your crazy not because I don't know what it is, but because you're wanting a five-deck headline. Five-deck headlines make me itch ... same with four-deck sumheads.

 

5-38-1 is five columns, one deck, at 38 points.

 

It's funny. I was with a bunch of family members and they sent me into a gas station to get a paper that was supposed to have info on the event we were headed to. I came out and said, "Oh it was just the bulldog edition." and they all looked at me like, "WTF." and then I had to spend the next 20 minutes explain what a Bulldog edition was, and why they're put out.

 

I wonder how many papers still have a backshop.

 

Yep, at every shop I've worked at the first number was columns, last number was decks. I'd hate to have to do a one column hed with 38 point, I don't care how many decks I have.

And a couple more terms:
Hed bust.
Nut graph.

 

May have multiple meanings . . . but mine was the primary operative meaning at the shop where I spent a lengthy (decade-plus) stint . . .

 

That could be true, but I never heard it that way.
Railroading a story is when you are right on deadline and don't have time to edit it. Write the headline and send it.

http://www.jsprinting.com/glossary/#r

 

Another oldie but goodie: Clip art.

And I don't mean the kinds on CDs. I mean the kind you stuck to the side of the layout boards, that could fill a hole in a hurry.

Such as the logo for the mighty Manistique Emeralds!