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This has a name its called burying the lead, its used because news papers are structured in a way where they know people have limited attention so usually they

by godmode2019 6y ago

This has a name its called burying the lead, its used because news papers are structured in a way where they know people have limited attention so usually they don't read to the end. All the important bits are typically laied out linearly, often trailing off at the end. Burying the lead takes advance if this and puts the important but inconvenient information at the bottom.

jhugo 6y ago
FYI, the name of the introductory section of a journalistic article is "lede", not "lead", and the practice is called "burying the lede".
- yesenadam 6y ago
  Yes and no. The GP probably knows the story that "lede" is a more recent spelling than you might think. e.g. This[0] article from Merriam Webster says "Although evidence dates the spelling to the 1970s, we didn't enter lede in our dictionaries until 2008." It says the different spelling was introduced to differentiate it from lead (the metal) which at that time was talked about often at newspapers re linotype printing. That article links to this[1], by Howard Owens: "It was then I realized, there is no historic basis for the spelling of a lead as “lede.” “Lede” is an invention of linotype romanticists, not something used in newsrooms of the linotype era." He says he looked at books from the 1940s - 1980s, "The fact is, in none of the dozens of old journalism books that I have examined — none of them — spell it “lede.” I can’t find the definitive first reference to “lede” but it doesn’t start appearing in journalism books until the 1980s. .. It wasn’t until linotype was disappearing from newsrooms across the nation (late 1970s and into the 1980s), that we start seeing the spelling “lede.” The safest conclusion, then, is that “lede” is a romantic fiction invented by those who were nostalgic for the passing of the linotype era." [0] https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/bury-the-lede-versus-lead https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/bury-the-lede-... [1] https://howardowens.com/lede-vs-lead/ https://howardowens.com/lede-vs-lead/
  - jhugo 6y ago
    Sure, lede is very recent, and largely without a solid historical basis, but it's the far more common spelling these days.
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jhugo 6y ago

FYI, the name of the introductory section of a journalistic article is "lede", not "lead", and the practice is called "burying the lede".

yesenadam 6y ago
Yes and no. The GP probably knows the story that "lede" is a more recent spelling than you might think. e.g. This[0] article from Merriam Webster says "Although evidence dates the spelling to the 1970s, we didn't enter lede in our dictionaries until 2008." It says the different spelling was introduced to differentiate it from lead (the metal) which at that time was talked about often at newspapers re linotype printing. That article links to this[1], by Howard Owens: "It was then I realized, there is no historic basis for the spelling of a lead as “lede.” “Lede” is an invention of linotype romanticists, not something used in newsrooms of the linotype era." He says he looked at books from the 1940s - 1980s, "The fact is, in none of the dozens of old journalism books that I have examined — none of them — spell it “lede.” I can’t find the definitive first reference to “lede” but it doesn’t start appearing in journalism books until the 1980s. .. It wasn’t until linotype was disappearing from newsrooms across the nation (late 1970s and into the 1980s), that we start seeing the spelling “lede.” The safest conclusion, then, is that “lede” is a romantic fiction invented by those who were nostalgic for the passing of the linotype era." [0] https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/bury-the-lede-versus-lead https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/bury-the-lede-... [1] https://howardowens.com/lede-vs-lead/ https://howardowens.com/lede-vs-lead/
- jhugo 6y ago
  Sure, lede is very recent, and largely without a solid historical basis, but it's the far more common spelling these days.
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