bout Captain Wolf, but that did not pass the editorial pencil.
Even more of the story might have been slashed without depriving us of
much of the interesting news.

Judging from the above story a newspaper account is divided into two
separate and independent parts: the lead and the detailed account. The
lead is written for the casual reader and contains all the necessary
facts about the fire; it may stand alone and constitute a story in
itself. The detailed account is written for the reader who wants to hear
more about the incident, and is written in the logical order of
events--with an eye to the danger of the editor's pencil threatening the
last paragraphs. In other words, the reporter tells his story briefly in
one paragraph and then goes back and tells it all over again in a more
detailed way. If the story is of sufficient importance the second
telling may not be sufficient and he may go back a third time to the
beginning and tell it again with still greater detail--but that is
another matter. For the present we shall consider only the lead and the
first detailed account.

There are certain other points to be noticed in the report of a
featureless fire. Under no condition should it begin with the time. Why?
Because, unless the time is of extreme interest, no one cares
particularly when the fire occurred. And if the time is of great
interest--as, for instance, if a church should burn while the
congregation is in it--then the time becomes a feature to be played up
and the story is no longer a featureless story. We are now considering
stories in which nothing is of greater interest than the mere fact that
there was a fire.

The same is true of the location. Who cares what street the fire was on
until he knows more about the fire? If the location were of such
significant importance as to be played up, the story would no longer be
a featureless story.

The paragraphing is also important. Since the lead is in itself a
separate part of the story it should always be paragraphed separately.
Do not let the beginning of the detailed account lap over into the lead,
and do not introduce into the first paragraph any facts which are not
absolutely a part of the lead--that is, facts that are absolutely
essential to a general knowledge of the fire. When once you begin to
tell the story in detail tell it logically and paragraph it logically.
Do not tell us that John Smith discovered the fire and that the loss is
$500 in the same