writing a news article assignment

Creating a Classroom Newspaper

• Resources & Preparation
• Instructional Plan
• Related Resources

Students will enjoy this creative, exciting, and stimulating lesson in writing as they create authentic newspaper stories. As they are transformed into reporters and editors, they will become effective users of ICT in order to publish their own classroom newspaper. Various aspects of newspapers are covered, including parts of a newspaper, writing an article, online newspapers, newspaper reading habits, and layout and design techniques.

Featured Resources

• Printing Press : In this online interactive tool, your students can choose the "newspaper" option to help them complete their newspaper section.
• Newspaper Story Format : Your students will find completing their newspaper article a snap by first filling out this useful handout that helps them identify each key element of an authentic newspaper article.

From Theory to Practice

• Encouraging children to read and write in ways that allow them to make sense of real language in real contexts is more likely to help them develop the skills necessary to become fluent readers and writers. Creation of a class newspaper provides such a real context, and thus makes an excellent choice as the basis for a project designed with this goal in mind.
• Use of the computer motivates students to learn and students' attitudes toward the newspaper genre are affected by active participation in the production of an authentic and original newspaper of their own.
• Abilities in formal writing are best developed with a "process approach" that goes through five distinct phases: prewriting, composing or drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. Using this approach helps students more fully understand the process of producing formal written documents, such as magazines and newspapers.

Common Core Standards

This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.

State Standards

This lesson has been aligned to standards in the following states. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, standard alignments are not currently available for that state.

NCTE/IRA National Standards for the English Language Arts

• 4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
• 5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
• 6. Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.
• 8. Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.
• 11. Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.

Materials and Technology

• Computer lab with Internet access
• Multimedia software
• Access to a library of images/graphics
• Scanner (optional)
• Digital camera (optional)
• Deadline! From News to Newspaper by Gail Gibbons (HarperCollins, 1987)
• The Furry News: How to Make a Newspaper by Loreen Leedy (Holiday House, 1993)
• Freddy and the Bean Home News by Walter R. Brooks (Puffin, 2002)
• Inverted Pyramid Format
• Newspaper Story Format
• Story Feedback Form
• Newspaper Writing Assessment
• Reporting Tips
• Reporter's Guide

Preparation

*Prerequisite skills: Familiarization with an appropriate multimedia software program

Student Objectives

Students will

• Identify the parts of a newspaper
• Identify the format of a news article
• Write a newspaper story
• Edit newspaper articles
• Use ICT equipment and software
• Layout and publish a classroom newspaper

Hold up a sample front page from a selected newspaper. Ask students what they notice about the format that is different from other texts they read (e.g., black and white ink, graphics, headline, column format). Divide the students into groups of three to four members. Explain to the students that they will explore a newspaper, paying attention to the layout and format. Instruct students to study the front page first and discuss what different parts they notice. Ask each group to report back to the whole class what members noticed was contained on the front page. Make a list of parts on the board. (e.g., title, headlines, pictures or graphics, captions, date, subtitles, table of contents/index, etc.). Students should notice similarities between different newspapers. Discuss with the class how newspapers use a standard format. In their groups, have students continue to explore copies of newspapers. What kinds of things do they notice? Students should begin to identify sections and features that are specific to newspapers. Have the groups again report to the whole class what types of items they noticed in their paper. Continue keeping the list of items on the board. (Additional items may include: editorials, cartoons, horoscope, local news, weddings, classifieds, advertising, etc.) Explain to the class that people read newspapers differently than other types of texts. Discuss how people read newspapers. Reading a newspaper matches people's interests in certain things. They scan headlines, subtitles, and images to see if the story interests them or not. Read some sample headlines from newspapers. Ask, "How many of you would be interested in reading this story?" For homework, have students ask their family members what newspapers they read regularly and what sections they read most often. Give an example of your own newspaper reading habits. (For example, "First I check the weather to help me decide what to wear to school. Then I go to the local news to see what is happening in my town. Finally, I scan the headlines to see what is happening in the world. If I have time, I start the crossword puzzle.")

Ask the students to report about their family's newspaper reading habits. Make a list of newspapers that are read and determine which are the most common. List the words who, what, where, when, and why on the board, overhead, or chart paper. Answer each of the five W questions using the popular rhyme "Jack & Jill." Example:

• Who? Jack and Jill
• What? Fell down and broke crown
• Where? On the hill
• When? Sometime in the past
• Why? Trying to fetch water

Read "Bad Fall Injures Children" article from page 4 of the Grandview Newspaper lesson plan . Students clarify their previous responses to the five W s according to the article. Explain how these five questions help to summarize a news story. Put students in groups of three to four members. Ask the students to choose another famous rhyme or fairy tale and answer the five W questions. Have each group read just the answers to their questions, and then have the class try to guess what fairy tale or rhyme it is. Explain that these five W s help with the organization of a news story and that they make up the most important details of the story. Demonstrate to the class the organization of a good news story using the Inverted Pyramid Format overhead. Use a sample newspaper story to illustrate an example of this format For homework, ask students to select a newspaper article that they are interested in reading and bring it to school the next day.

Give students time to read the newspaper article they brought from home. Hand out the Newspaper Story Format sheet. Students should then complete the sheet using details from their particular article and share the summary of their newspaper article. Ask the students to rewrite the newspaper article in their own words as if they were a reporter for their local newspaper. What changes would they make and why? Have the students share their stories with a classmate using the following questions to guide their discussion:

• Were changes made to the lead? Why?
• Were changes made to the five W s? Why?
• Were changes made to the details? Why?

As a class, discuss fact versus opinion. Explain that news articles do not include the reporter's opinion. Have students go back and see if the changes that were made to their articles were strictly factual. Refer to original articles as needed for examples of fact-based stories.

Read-aloud to the class from one or more of the suggested titles:

• Deadline! From News to Newspaper by Gail Gibbons
• The Furry News: How to Make a Newspaper by Loreen Leedy
• Freddy and the Bean Home News by Walter R. Brooks

Have students brainstorm the types of articles they would like to write and list them on the board. Look at the list and ask students if the articles could be grouped into categories or "newspaper sections." Use the Reporting Tips overhead to present how to make newspaper articles more interesting. Go over each point and clarify any questions that students may raise. Group students based on interests to form an "editorial staff" for each newspaper section. Have the groups meet to decide who will write which stories. Students can use the Reporter's Guide handout as a guideline. When they have finished, students can begin collecting facts for their stories.

Session 5 and 6

Take students to the computer lab and have them write their first draft. They should not worry about font, size, or columns at this point. Be sure that they save their work and print a hard copy of their article for editing. Students' stories should then be self-edited and edited by two other members of their editorial staff (using the Story Feedback Form ). Students should make necessary revisions to their stories based on the comments from the Story Feedback Form.

In the computer lab, have students access the Internet Public Library website and explore newspapers from around the world. They should pay particular attention to the design and layout elements. For example, some articles may include graphics (e.g., photos, charts, graphs). Discuss what patterns of layout design the students noticed. As a whole class, discuss newspaper layout, addressing the following points:

• Headline News: Top priority articles are near the front (1-2 pages). These are typically of high interest to your entire audience of readers (e.g., town news such as a new park or community center). Long front-page articles can be continued on an inside page to provide room for other headline news.
• Feature Articles: Stories about topics or events that are of interest to a certain group of readers (e.g., sports, animal stories, academic topics, interviews with school staff, book reviews). These are typically grouped into sections.
• Pictures or graphics: The image should always appear with the story. A caption can be included. The size usually depends on how much space is available in the layout.

Give students the opportunity to explore these layout items in newspapers in the classroom and online. Students should look at the Junior Seahawk Newsletter to get ideas for their own layout.

Session 8 and 9

In the computer lab, students should complete final story revisions. They may then begin the newspaper layout using appropriate software. The ReadWriteThink Printing Press includes an option for creating a newspaper. Each editorial staff works together to complete their newspaper section. Note: 8 ½ X 11 size pages are optimal. They can be printed and copied back to back on 11 X 17 paper that can be folded like a real newspaper. The completed paper must have an even number of pages for this format. Pictures can be drawn or pasted into the layout. Depending on the available resources, pictures can also be scanned or downloaded from a digital camera. Tell students to play around with fonts and columns. They should experiment and be creative! Once pages are completed, they should be printed. The editorial staff should do a final reading for errors. Pages are then submitted to the teacher for publishing.

Distribute the class newspaper to the students and allow them time to read it. When they have finished, hand out the Newspaper Writing Assessment sheet and ask them to fill it out.

Student Assessment / Reflections

Assess students' comments from the Newspaper Writing Assessment sheet.

• Calendar Activities
• Student Interactives
• Lesson Plans

The interactive Printing Press is designed to assist students in creating newspapers, brochures, and flyers.

Students analyze rhetorical strategies in online editorials, building knowledge of strategies and awareness of local and national issues. This lesson teaches students connections between subject, writer, and audience and how rhetorical strategies are used in everyday writing.

• Print this resource

Explore Resources by Grade

• Kindergarten K

• Follow us on Facebook
• Follow us on Twitter
• Criminal Justice
• Environment
• Politics & Government
• Race & Gender

Expert Commentary

Basic newswriting: Learn how to originate, research and write breaking-news stories

Syllabus for semester-long course on the fundamentals of covering and writing the news, including how identify a story, gather information efficiently and place it in a meaningful context.

Republish this article

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License .

by The Journalist's Resource, The Journalist's Resource January 22, 2010

This <a target="_blank" href="https://journalistsresource.org/home/syllabus-covering-the-news/">article</a> first appeared on <a target="_blank" href="https://journalistsresource.org">The Journalist's Resource</a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.<img src="https://journalistsresource.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/cropped-jr-favicon-150x150.png" style="width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;">

This course introduces tomorrow’s journalists to the fundamentals of covering and writing news. Mastering these skills is no simple task. In an Internet age of instantaneous access, demand for high-quality accounts of fast-breaking news has never been greater. Nor has the temptation to cut corners and deliver something less.

To resist this temptation, reporters must acquire skills to identify a story and its essential elements, gather information efficiently, place it in a meaningful context, and write concise and compelling accounts, sometimes at breathtaking speed. The readings, discussions, exercises and assignments of this course are designed to help students acquire such skills and understand how to exercise them wisely.

Photo: Memorial to four slain Lakewood, Wash., police officers. The Seattle Times earned the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting for their coverage of the crime.

Course objective

To give students the background and skills needed to originate, research, focus and craft clear, compelling and contextual accounts of breaking news in a deadline environment.

Learning objectives

• Build an understanding of the role news plays in American democracy.
• Discuss basic journalistic principles such as accuracy, integrity and fairness.
• Evaluate how practices such as rooting and stereotyping can undermine them.
• Analyze what kinds of information make news and why.
• Evaluate the elements of news by deconstructing award-winning stories.
• Evaluate the sources and resources from which news content is drawn.
• Analyze how information is attributed, quoted and paraphrased in news.
• Gain competence in focusing a story’s dominant theme in a single sentence.
• Introduce the structure, style and language of basic news writing.
• Gain competence in building basic news stories, from lead through their close.
• Gain confidence and competence in writing under deadline pressure.
• Practice how to identify, background and contact appropriate sources.
• Discuss and apply the skills needed to interview effectively.
• Analyze data and how it is used and abused in news coverage.
• Review basic math skills needed to evaluate and use statistics in news.
• Report and write basic stories about news events on deadline.

Suggested reading

• A standard textbook of the instructor’s choosing.
• America ‘s Best Newspaper Writing , Roy Peter Clark and Christopher Scanlan, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2006
• The Elements of Journalism , Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, Three Rivers Press, 2001.
• Talk Straight, Listen Carefully: The Art of Interviewing , M.L. Stein and Susan E. Paterno, Iowa State University Press, 2001
• Math Tools for Journalists , Kathleen Woodruff Wickham, Marion Street Press, Inc., 2002
• On Writing Well: 30th Anniversary Edition , William Zinsser, Collins, 2006
• Associated Press Stylebook 2009 , Associated Press, Basic Books, 2009

Weekly schedule and exercises (13-week course)

We encourage faculty to assign students to read on their own Kovach and Rosentiel’s The Elements of Journalism in its entirety during the early phase of the course. Only a few chapters of their book are explicitly assigned for the class sessions listed below.

The assumption for this syllabus is that the class meets twice weekly.

Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 Week 8 | Week 9 | Week 10 | Week 11 | Week 12 | Weeks 13/14

Week 1: Why journalism matters

Previous week | Next week | Back to top

Class 1: The role of journalism in society

The word journalism elicits considerable confusion in contemporary American society. Citizens often confuse the role of reporting with that of advocacy. They mistake those who promote opinions or push their personal agendas on cable news or in the blogosphere for those who report. But reporters play a different role: that of gatherer of evidence, unbiased and unvarnished, placed in a context of past events that gives current events weight beyond the ways opinion leaders or propagandists might misinterpret or exploit them.

This session’s discussion will focus on the traditional role of journalism eloquently summarized by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel in The Elements of Journalism . The class will then examine whether they believe that the journalist’s role has changed or needs to change in today’s news environment. What is the reporter’s role in contemporary society? Is objectivity, sometimes called fairness, an antiquated concept or an essential one, as the authors argue, for maintaining a democratic society? How has the term been subverted? What are the reporter’s fundamental responsibilities? This discussion will touch on such fundamental issues as journalists’ obligation to the truth, their loyalty to the citizens who are their audience and the demands of their discipline to verify information, act independently, provide a forum for public discourse and seek not only competing viewpoints but carefully vetted facts that help establish which viewpoints are grounded in evidence.

Reading: Kovach and Rosenstiel, Chapter 1, and relevant pages of the course text

Assignments:

• Students should compare the news reporting on a breaking political story in The Wall Street Journal , considered editorially conservative, and The New York Times , considered editorially liberal. They should write a two-page memo that considers the following questions: Do the stories emphasize the same information? Does either story appear to slant the news toward a particular perspective? How? Do the stories support the notion of fact-based journalism and unbiased reporting or do they appear to infuse opinion into news? Students should provide specific examples that support their conclusions.
• Students should look for an example of reporting in any medium in which reporters appear have compromised the notion of fairness to intentionally or inadvertently espouse a point of view. What impact did the incorporation of such material have on the story? Did its inclusion have any effect on the reader’s perception of the story?

Class 2: Objectivity, fairness and contemporary confusion about both

In his book Discovering the News , Michael Schudson traced the roots of objectivity to the era following World War I and a desire by journalists to guard against the rapid growth of public relations practitioners intent on spinning the news. Objectivity was, and remains, an ideal, a method for guarding against spin and personal bias by examining all sides of a story and testing claims through a process of evidentiary verification. Practiced well, it attempts to find where something approaching truth lies in a sea of conflicting views. Today, objectivity often is mistaken for tit-for-tat journalism, in which the reporters only responsibility is to give equal weight to the conflicting views of different parties without regard for which, if any, are saying something approximating truth. This definition cedes the journalist’s responsibility to seek and verify evidence that informs the citizenry.

Focusing on the “Journalism of Verification” chapter in The Elements of Journalism , this class will review the evolution and transformation of concepts of objectivity and fairness and, using the homework assignment, consider how objectivity is being practiced and sometimes skewed in the contemporary new media.

Reading: Kovach and Rosenstiel, Chapter 4, and relevant pages of the course text.

Assignment: Students should evaluate stories on the front page and metro front of their daily newspaper. In a two-page memo, they should describe what elements of news judgment made the stories worthy of significant coverage and play. Finally, they should analyze whether, based on what else is in the paper, they believe the editors reached the right decision.

Week 2: Where news comes from

Class 1: News judgment

When editors sit down together to choose the top stories, they use experience and intuition. The beginner journalist, however, can acquire a sense of news judgment by evaluating news decisions through the filter of a variety of factors that influence news play. These factors range from traditional measures such as when the story took place and how close it was to the local readership area to more contemporary ones, such as the story’s educational value.

Using the assignment and the reading, students should evaluate what kinds of information make for interesting news stories and why.

In this session, instructors might consider discussing the layers of news from the simplest breaking news event to the purely enterprise investigative story.

Assignment: Students should read and deconstruct coverage of a major news event. One excellent source for quality examples is the site of the Pulitzer Prizes , which has a category for breaking news reporting. All students should read the same article (assigned by the instructor), and write a two- or three-page memo that describes how the story is organized, what information it contains and what sources of information it uses, both human and digital. Among the questions they should ask are:

• Does the first (or lead) paragraph summarize the dominant point?
• What specific information does the lead include?
• What does it leave out?
• How do the second and third paragraphs relate to the first paragraph and the information it contains? Do they give unrelated information, information that provides further details about what’s established in the lead paragraph or both?
• Does the story at any time place the news into a broader context of similar events or past events? If so, when and how?
• What information in the story is attributed , specifically tied to an individual or to documentary information from which it was taken? What information is not attributed? Where does the information appear in the sentence? Give examples of some of the ways the sources of information are identified? Give examples of the verbs of attribution that are chosen.
• Where and how often in the story are people quoted, their exact words placed in quotation marks? What kind of information tends to be quoted — basic facts or more colorful commentary? What information that’s attributed is paraphrased , summing up what someone said but not in their exact words.
• How is the story organized — by theme, by geography, by chronology (time) or by some other means?
• What human sources are used in the story? Are some authorities? Are some experts? Are some ordinary people affected by the event? Who are some of the people in each category? What do they contribute to the story? Does the reporter (or reporters) rely on a single source or a wide range? Why do you think that’s the case?
• What specific facts and details make the story more vivid to you? How do you think the reporter was able to gather those details?
• What documents (paper or digital) are detailed in the story? Do they lend authority to the story? Why or why not?
• Is any specific data (numbers, statistics) used in the story? What does it lend to the story? Would you be satisfied substituting words such as “many” or “few” for the specific numbers and statistics used? Why or why not?

Class 2: Deconstructing the story

By carefully deconstructing major news stories, students will begin to internalize some of the major principles of this course, from crafting and supporting the lead of a story to spreading a wide and authoritative net for information. This class will focus on the lessons of a Pulitzer Prize winner.

Reading: Clark/Scanlan, Pages 287-294

Assignment: Writers typically draft a focus statement after conceiving an idea and conducting preliminary research or reporting. This focus statement helps to set the direction of reporting and writing. Sometimes reporting dictates a change of direction. But the statement itself keeps the reporter from getting off course. Focus statements typically are 50 words or less and summarize the story’s central point. They work best when driven by a strong, active verb and written after preliminary reporting.

• Students should write a focus statement that encapsulates the news of the Pulitzer Prize winning reporting the class critiqued.

Week 3: Finding the focus, building the lead

Class 1: News writing as a process

Student reporters often conceive of writing as something that begins only after all their reporting is finished. Such an approach often leaves gaps in information and leads the reporter to search broadly instead of with targeted depth. The best reporters begin thinking about story the minute they get an assignment. The approach they envision for telling the story informs their choice of whom they seek interviews with and what information they gather. This class will introduce students to writing as a process that begins with story concept and continues through initial research, focus, reporting, organizing and outlining, drafting and revising.

During this session, the class will review the focus statements written for homework in small breakout groups and then as a class. Professors are encouraged to draft and hand out a mock or real press release or hold a mock press conference from which students can draft a focus statement.

Reading: Zinsser, pages 1-45, Clark/Scanlan, pages 294-302, and relevant pages of the course text

Class 2: The language of news

Newswriting has its own sentence structure and syntax. Most sentences branch rightward, following a pattern of subject/active verb/object. Reporters choose simple, familiar words. They write spare, concise sentences. They try to make a single point in each. But journalistic writing is specific and concrete. While reporters generally avoid formal or fancy word choices and complex sentence structures, they do not write in generalities. They convey information. Each sentence builds on what came before. This class will center on the language of news, evaluating the language in selections from America’s Best Newspaper Writing , local newspapers or the Pulitzers.

Reading: Relevant pages of the course text

Assignment: Students should choose a traditional news lead they like and one they do not like from a local or national newspaper. In a one- or two-page memo, they should print the leads, summarize the stories and evaluate why they believe the leads were effective or not.

Week 4: Crafting the first sentence

Class 1: The lead

No sentence counts more than a story’s first sentence. In most direct news stories, it stands alone as the story’s lead. It must summarize the news, establish the storyline, convey specific information and do all this simply and succinctly. Readers confused or bored by the lead read no further. It takes practice to craft clear, concise and conversational leads. This week will be devoted to that practice.

Students should discuss the assigned leads in groups of three or four, with each group choosing one lead to read to the entire class. The class should then discuss the elements of effective leads (active voice; active verb; single, dominant theme; simple sentences) and write leads in practice exercises.

Assignment: Have students revise the leads they wrote in class and craft a second lead from fact patterns.

Class 2: The lead continued

Some leads snap or entice instead of summarize. When the news is neither urgent nor earnest, these can work well. Though this class will introduce students to other kinds of leads, instructors should continue to emphasize traditional leads, typically found atop breaking news stories.

Class time should largely be devoted to writing traditional news leads under a 15-minute deadline pressure. Students should then be encouraged to read their own leads aloud and critique classmates’ leads. At least one such exercise might focus on students writing a traditional lead and a less traditional lead from the same information.

Assignment: Students should find a political or international story that includes various types (direct and indirect) and levels (on-the-record, not for attribution and deep background) of attribution. They should write a one- or two-page memo describing and evaluating the attribution. Did the reporter make clear the affiliation of those who expressed opinions? Is information attributed to specific people by name? Are anonymous figures given the opportunity to criticize others by name? Is that fair?

Week 5: Establishing the credibility of news

Class 1: Attribution

All news is based on information, painstakingly gathered, verified and checked again. Even so, “truth” is an elusive concept. What reporters cobble together instead are facts and assertions drawn from interviews and documentary evidence.

To lend authority to this information and tell readers from where it comes, reporters attribute all information that is not established fact. It is neither necessary, for example, to attribute that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was first elected president in 1932 nor that he was elected four times. On the other hand, it would be necessary to attribute, at least indirectly, the claim that he was one of America’s best presidents. Why? Because that assertion is a matter of opinion.

In this session, students should learn about different levels of attribution, where attribution is best placed in a sentence, and why it can be crucial for the protection of the accused, the credibility of reporters and the authoritativeness of the story.

Assignment: Working from a fact pattern, students should write a lead that demands attribution.

Class 2: Quoting and paraphrasing

“Great quote,” ranks closely behind “great lead” in the pecking order of journalistic praise. Reporters listen for great quotes as intensely as piano tuners listen for the perfect pitch of middle C. But what makes a great quote? And when should reporters paraphrase instead?

This class should cover a range of issues surrounding the quoted word from what it is used to convey (color and emotion, not basic information) to how frequently quotes should be used and how long they should run on. Other issues include the use and abuse of partial quotes, when a quote is not a quote, and how to deal with rambling and ungrammatical subjects.

As an exercise, students might either interview the instructor or a classmate about an exciting personal experience. After their interviews, they should review their notes choose what they consider the three best quotes to include a story on the subject. They should then discuss why they chose them.

Assignment: After completing the reading, students should analyze a summary news story no more than 15 paragraphs long. In a two- or three-page memo, they should reprint the story and then evaluate whether the lead summarizes the news, whether the subsequent paragraphs elaborate on or “support” the lead, whether the story has a lead quote, whether it attributes effectively, whether it provides any context for the news and whether and how it incorporates secondary themes.

Week 6: The building blocks of basic stories

Class 1: Supporting the lead

Unlike stories told around a campfire or dinner table, news stories front load information. Such a structure delivers the most important information first and the least important last. If a news lead summarizes, the subsequent few paragraphs support or elaborate by providing details the lead may have merely suggested. So, for example, a story might lead with news that a 27-year-old unemployed chef has been arrested on charges of robbing the desk clerk of an upscale hotel near closing time. The second paragraph would “support” this lead with detail. It would name the arrested chef, identify the hotel and its address, elaborate on the charges and, perhaps, say exactly when the robbery took place and how. (It would not immediately name the desk clerk; too many specifics at once clutter the story.)

Wire service stories use a standard structure in building their stories. First comes the lead sentence. Then comes a sentence or two of lead support. Then comes a lead quote — spoken words that reinforce the story’s direction, emphasize the main theme and add color. During this class students should practice writing the lead through the lead quote on deadline. They should then read assignments aloud for critique by classmates and the professor.

Assignment: Using a fact pattern assigned by the instructor or taken from a text, students should write a story from the lead through the lead quote. They should determine whether the story needs context to support the lead and, if so, include it.

Class 2: When context matters

Sometimes a story’s importance rests on what came before. If one fancy restaurant closes its doors in the face of the faltering economy, it may warrant a few paragraphs mention. If it’s the fourth restaurant to close on the same block in the last two weeks, that’s likely front-page news. If two other restaurants closed last year, that might be worth noting in the story’s last sentence. It is far less important. Patterns provide context and, when significant, generally are mentioned either as part of the lead or in the support paragraph that immediately follows. This class will look at the difference between context — information needed near the top of a story to establish its significance as part of a broader pattern, and background — information that gives historical perspective but doesn’t define the news at hand.

Assignment: The course to this point has focused on writing the news. But reporters, of course, usually can’t write until they’ve reported. This typically starts with background research to establish what has come before, what hasn’t been covered well and who speaks with authority on an issue. Using databases such as Lexis/Nexis, students should background or read specific articles about an issue in science or policy that either is highlighted in the Policy Areas section of Journalist’s Resource website or is currently being researched on your campus. They should engage in this assignment knowing that a new development on the topic will be brought to light when they arrive at the next class.

Week 7: The reporter at work

Class 1: Research

Discuss the homework assignment. Where do reporters look to background an issue? How do they find documents, sources and resources that enable them to gather good information or identify key people who can help provide it? After the discussion, students should be given a study from the Policy Areas section of Journalist’s Resource website related to the subject they’ve been asked to explore.

The instructor should use this study to evaluate the nature structure of government/scientific reports. After giving students 15 minutes to scan the report, ask students to identify its most newsworthy point. Discuss what context might be needed to write a story about the study or report. Discuss what concepts or language students are having difficulty understanding.

Reading: Clark, Scanlan, pages 305-313, and relevant pages of the course text

Assignment: Students should (a) write a lead for a story based exclusively on the report (b) do additional background work related to the study in preparation for writing a full story on deadline. (c) translate at least one term used in the study that is not familiar to a lay audience.

Class 2: Writing the basic story on deadline

This class should begin with a discussion of the challenges of translating jargon and the importance of such translation in news reporting. Reporters translate by substituting a simple definition or, generally with the help of experts, comparing the unfamiliar to the familiar through use of analogy.

The remainder of the class should be devoted to writing a 15- to 20-line news report, based on the study, background research and, if one is available, a press release.

Reading: Pages 1-47 of Stein/Paterno, and relevant pages of the course text

Assignment: Prepare a list of questions that you would ask either the lead author of the study you wrote about on deadline or an expert who might offer an outside perspective.

Week 8: Effective interviewing

Class 1: Preparing and getting the interview

Successful interviews build from strong preparation. Reporters need to identify the right interview subjects, know what they’ve said before, interview them in a setting that makes them comfortable and ask questions that elicit interesting answers. Each step requires thought.

The professor should begin this class by critiquing some of the questions students drew up for homework. Are they open-ended or close-ended? Do they push beyond the obvious? Do they seek specific examples that explain the importance of the research or its applications? Do they probe the study’s potential weaknesses? Do they explore what directions the researcher might take next?

Discuss the readings and what steps reporters can take to background for an interview, track down a subject and prepare and rehearse questions in advance.

Reading: Stein/Paterno, pages 47-146, and relevant pages of the course text

Assignment: Students should prepare to interview their professor about his or her approach to and philosophy of teaching. Before crafting their questions, the students should background the instructor’s syllabi, public course evaluations and any pertinent writings.

Class 2: The interview and its aftermath

The interview, says Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jacqui Banaszynski, is a dance which the reporter leads but does so to music the interview subject chooses. Though reporters prepare and rehearse their interviews, they should never read the questions they’ve considered in advance and always be prepared to change directions. To hear the subject’s music, reporters must be more focused on the answers than their next question. Good listeners make good interviewers — good listeners, that is, who don’t forget that it is also their responsibility to also lead.

Divide the class. As a team, five students should interview the professor about his/her approach to teaching. Each of these five should build on the focus and question of the previous questioner. The rest of the class should critique the questions, their clarity and their focus. Are the questioners listening? Are they maintaining control? Are they following up? The class also should discuss the reading, paying particularly close attention to the dynamics of an interview, the pace of questions, the nature of questions, its close and the reporter’s responsibility once an interview ends.

Assignment: Students should be assigned to small groups and asked to critique the news stories classmates wrote on deadline during the previous class.

Week 9: Building the story

Class 1: Critiquing the story

The instructor should separate students into groups of two or three and tell them to read their news stories to one another aloud. After each reading, the listeners should discuss what they liked and struggled with as the story audience. The reader in each case should reflect on what he or she learned from the process of reading the story aloud.

The instructor then should distribute one or two of the class stories that provide good and bad examples of story structure, information selection, content, organization and writing. These should be critiqued as a class.

Assignment: Students, working in teams, should develop an angle for a news follow to the study or report they covered on deadline. Each team should write a focus statement for the story it is proposing.

Class 2: Following the news

The instructor should lead a discussion about how reporters “enterprise,” or find original angles or approaches, by looking to the corners of news, identifying patterns of news, establishing who is affected by news, investigating the “why” of news, and examining what comes next.

Students should be asked to discuss the ideas they’ve developed to follow the news story. These can be assigned as longer-term team final projects for the semester. As part of this discussion, the instructor can help students map their next steps.

Reading: Wickham, Chapters 1-4 and 7, and relevant pages of the course text

Assignment: Students should find a news report that uses data to support or develop its main point. They should consider what and how much data is used, whether it is clear, whether it’s cluttered and whether it answers their questions. They should bring the article and a brief memo analyzing it to class.

Week 10: Making sense of data and statistics

Class 1: Basic math and the journalist’s job

Many reporters don’t like math. But in their jobs, it is everywhere. Reporters must interpret political polls, calculate percentage change in everything from property taxes to real estate values, make sense of municipal bids and municipal budgets, and divine data in government reports.

First discuss some of the examples of good and bad use of data that students found in their homework. Then, using examples from Journalist’s Resource website, discuss good and poor use of data in news reporting. (Reporters, for example, should not overwhelm readers with paragraphs stuffed with statistics.) Finally lead students through some of the basic skills sets outlined in Wickham’s book, using her exercises to practice everything from calculating percentage change to interpreting polls.

Assignment: Give students a report or study linked to the Journalist’s Resource website that requires some degree of statistical evaluation or interpretation. Have students read the report and compile a list of questions they would ask to help them understand and interpret this data.

Class 2: The use and abuse of statistics

Discuss the students’ questions. Then evaluate one or more articles drawn from the report they’ve analyzed that attempt to make sense of the data in the study. Discuss what these articles do well and what they do poorly.

Reading: Zinsser, Chapter 13, “Macabre Reminder: The Corpse on Union Street,” Dan Barry, The New York Times

Week 11: The reporter as observer

Class 1: Using the senses

Veteran reporters covering an event don’t only return with facts, quotes and documents that support them. They fill their notebooks with details that capture what they’ve witnessed. They use all their senses, listening for telling snippets of conversation and dialogue, watching for images, details and actions that help bring readers to the scene. Details that develop character and place breathe vitality into news. But description for description’s sake merely clutters and obscures the news. Using the senses takes practice.

The class should deconstruct “Macabre Reminder: The Corpse on Union Street,” a remarkable journey around New Orleans a few days after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city in 2005. The story starts with one corpse, left to rot on a once-busy street and then pans the city as a camera might. The dead body serves as a metaphor for the rotting city, largely abandoned and without order.

Assignment: This is an exercise in observation. Students may not ask questions. Their task is to observe, listen and describe a short scene, a serendipitous vignette of day-to-day life. They should take up a perch in a lively location of their choosing — a student dining hall or gym, a street corner, a pool hall or bus stop or beauty salon, to name a few — wait and watch. When a small scene unfolds, one with beginning, middle and end, students should record it. They then should write a brief story describing the scene that unfolded, taking care to leave themselves and their opinions out of the story. This is pure observation, designed to build the tools of observation and description. These stories should be no longer than 200 words.

Class 2: Sharpening the story

Students should read their observation pieces aloud to a classmate. Both students should consider these questions: Do the words describe or characterize? Which words show and which words tell? What words are extraneous? Does the piece convey character through action? Does it have a clear beginning, middle and end? Students then should revise, shortening the original scene to no longer than 150 words. After the revision, the instructor should critique some of the students’ efforts.

Assignment: Using campus, governmental or media calendars, students should identify, background and prepare to cover a speech, press conference or other news event, preferably on a topic related to one of the research-based areas covered in the Policy Areas section of Journalist’s Resource website. Students should write a focus statement (50 words or less) for their story and draw up a list of some of the questions they intend to ask.

Week 12: Reporting on deadline

Class 1: Coaching the story

Meetings, press conferences and speeches serve as a staple for much news reporting. Reporters should arrive at such events knowledgeable about the key players, their past positions or research, and the issues these sources are likely discuss. Reporters can discover this information in various ways. They can research topic and speaker online and in journalistic databases, peruse past correspondence sent to public offices, and review the writings and statements of key speakers with the help of their assistants or secretaries.

In this class, the instructor should discuss the nature of event coverage, review students’ focus statements and questions, and offer suggestions about how they cover the events.

Assignment: Cover the event proposed in the class above and draft a 600-word story, double-spaced, based on its news and any context needed to understand it.

Class 2: Critiquing and revising the story

Students should exchange story drafts and suggest changes. After students revise, the instructor should lead a discussion about the challenges of reporting and writing live on deadline. These likely will include issues of access and understanding and challenges of writing around and through gaps of information.

Weeks 13/14: Coaching the final project

Previous week | Back to top

The final week or two of the class is reserved for drill in areas needing further development and for coaching students through the final reporting, drafting and revision of the enterprise stories off the study or report they covered in class.

Tags: training

About The Author

The Journalist's Resource

If you have a class filled with newshounds eager to write their own front-page stories about classroom events or the latest happenings in the cafeteria, Scholastic Teachables has you covered with ready-to-go resources for your young journalists.

These 5 resources will help students in grades 3–5 learn about the newswriting process and how to add descriptive elements that will engage readers. Not only will they learn how to write a news article, students will also learn important content-area vocabulary that gives new meaning to words like  dummy ,  bleeds , and  widow . Before you know it, your classroom will be a busy newsroom filled with young reporters looking to break the next big story!

1.     Newspaper Writing: Narrative Learning Center

This  narrative learning center  specifically designed for newspaper writing helps students report facts and write a compelling news story that will engage their readers. The printable includes an introductory lesson, student directions, model writing samples, graphic organizers, differentiation tips, and an assessment rubric.

2.     Newspaper Article: Leveled Graphic Organizers

This lesson with  tiered graphic organizers  will help your cub reporters and front-page newshounds learn the basics of news writing. Students will write a news article that opens with a lead, includes who, what, when, where, and why, and presents details in the body of the story.

3.     Newspaper Jargon: Grade 4 Vocabulary

To be true news writers, students need to know the industry jargon. This  vocabulary packet  teaches students what words like  bleeds ,  dummy , and  stringer  commonly mean in newsrooms.

4.     The Daily News: Language Arts Bulletin Board

This  bulletin board  resource not only turns your classroom into a newsroom, it also helps students develop the speaking, listening, writing, and reading skills they need to run it effectively. 

5.     Plenty of Plastic: Grade 5 Opinion Writing Lesson

Every respected newspaper has a robust editorial section. This  writing lesson  helps create persuasive opinion writers by encouraging students to take a written stance for or against plastic bags.

Scholastic Teachables helps teachers like you build the next generation of journalists and newshounds. Even better, these teaching materials are ready to go, saving you time when you need it most during the school year. The printables are free to subscribers of Scholastic Teachables or are available for individual purchase.  Log in or subscribe today  for teaching tools to help your students write news articles that can make a difference in your classroom, school, and community!

JavaScript seems to be disabled in your browser. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser.

Journalism Center

A newspaper classroom assignment – for students.

Okay, your teacher has assigned you to create a newspaper. To help you with your assignment, we not only have hundreds of templates you can use, but this little tutorial is designed to assist you in your homework assignment.

To begin, it is important to understand the various elements of a newspaper so that you’ll have a good idea what you need to gather together by way of content. A newspaper is primarily about the written articles, so ultimately, you will design and layout your newspaper around your articles. Here is what you will need to gather together minimally—your teacher may have more requirements:

• 2 to 3 articles per page. On a tabloid sized newspaper, you will be able to have 2 articles of around 750 words plus images or 3 articles of around 500 words. This article is a little over 500 words long.
• At least 1 corresponding photo per article. 2 images would be great. Remember, it is always easier to resize images than it is to resize articles (this is why a newspaper is often built around the articles, not the images).
• Graphic Design Software. Your teacher might have suggestions, but if you are at a loss, you can use MakeMyNewspaper’s Cloud Designer and templates . Just be sure to mark the project as “homework” when you save it to get a 90% discount on the PDF ($1.99).

Once you have the articles and images together, insert the articles into the newspaper software first. Adjust the column lengths so that all your words are in the textbox.

Layout and Design Tips

• Insert all your articles first and get them situated well.
• Using 11pt or 12pt serif fonts (such as Times New Roman) for the body or copy text.
• Using 14pt or 16pt font size for article titles (except for the feature story, then choose a size somewhere between 16pt and the main newspaper title font size…this should be the largest text outside of the newspaper name itself).
• Use 3 or 4 columns for tabloid sized newspapers.
• Keep at least an 1/8th of an inch between each column. Whatever you choose, it is important to make it consistent between all columns.
• Leave the same amount of space between textboxes and images as you have between columns.
• Don’t use too many fonts. 2 or 3 at the most, and make sure that all fonts are consistent. In other words, don’t change fonts for the titles of article A and B. Keep all titles the same fonts and all copy text the same font.
• Align everything up well.
• Crop pictures to fit the space you have. Generally, if you must stretch or shrink an image you want to always keep them proportional. Otherwise, they will look too fat or too skinny. So to get an image to fit, crop it.
• Don’t get your newspaper too crowded. Having extra white space between articles, titles or columns is not a bad thing.

Free Cloud Designer Templates

Our templates are 100% customizable, super user-friendly, and designed specifically to help you create outstanding school newspapers with our free Cloud Designer. Below are a few of the 100s of templates available to you.

• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Service

Who Are We?

We are a one-stop shop for all your newspaper needs. You can design and print real, actual newspapers right here. We specialize in shortrun newspapers for practically any niche or need, from schools to weddings.

MMNC Key Features

• Low Printing Prices
• Fully Integrated Cloud Designer
• Create Digital eNewspapers
• First Class, Modern Templates
• Start to Finish Guides
• Tabloid and Broadsheet Printing
• Dedicated Customer Care
• Newspaper Design Services
• Personalized Account Center

Popular Newspaper Niches

Schools - Colleges, High Schools, Middle, Elementary

Community - Income Generating, Public Service

Businesses - Marketing, Catalogs, Newsletters

Religious - Churches, Religious Organizations

More Popular Niches

Real Estate - Properties, Growth, Community

Restaurants - Menus, Reviews, Funny Pages

Political - Elections, Campaigns, Grass Roots

Personal - Birthdays , Reunions , Weddings

• Research by Subject
• All Databases (A-Z)
• Course Reserves
• Journals by Title
• A book on the shelf
• Digital Collections
• Interlibrary Loan
• Make Appointment with Librarian
• Schedule a Class (faculty)
• Poster Production / Media
• Online / Distance Services
• Book a Study Room
• Special Collections
• Study Rooms
• All Policies
• Support the Library
• BuleyWise Blog
• Buley Bulletin
• Floor Plans
• Library Directory
• Library Hours
• The Director's Page
• Library Impact Dashboard

How to Write a News Story

Newspaper article outline, how to write a news story in 15 steps.

• Fact Checking
• Streaming Video & DVDs
• Public Records
• Journalism Websites

The Purdue Owl : Journalism and Journalistic Writing: Introduction

From Scholastic: Writing a newspaper article

Article outline

I. Lead sentence

Grab and hook your reader right away.

II. Introduction

Which facts and figures will ground your story? You have to tell your readers where and when this story is happening.

III. Opening quotation 

What will give the reader a sense of the people involved and what they are thinking?

IV. Main body

What is at the heart of your story?

V. Closing quotation

Find something that sums the article up in a few words.

VI. Conclusion  (optional—the closing quote may do the job)

The following is an excerpt from The Elements of News Writing by James W. Kershner (Pearson, 2009).  This book is available for checkout at Buley Library (Call number PN 4775 .K37 2009, on the 3rd floor)

1.       Select a newsworthy story. Your goal is to give a timely account of a recent, interesting, and significant event or development.

2.       Think about your goals and objectives in writing the story. What will the readers want and need to know about the subject? How can you best tell the story?

3.       Find out who can provide the most accurate information about the subject and how to contact that person. Find out what other sources you can use to obtain relevant information.

4.       Do your homework. Do research so that you have a basic understanding of the situation before interviewing anyone about it. Check clips of stories already written on the subject.

5.       Prepare a list of questions to ask about the story.

6.       Arrange to get the needed information. This may mean scheduling an interview or locating the appropriate people to interview.

7.       Interview the source and take notes. Ask your prepared questions, plus other questions that come up in the course of the conversation. Ask the source to suggest other sources. Ask if you may call the source back for further questions later.

8.       Interview second and third sources, ask follow-up questions, and do further research until you have a understanding of the story.

9.       Ask yourself, “What’s the story?” and “What’s the point?” Be sure you have a clear focus in your mind before you start writing. Rough out a lead in your head.

10.   Make a written outline or plan of your story.

11.   Write your first draft following your plan, but changing it as necessary.

12.   Read through your first draft looking for content problems, holes, or weak spots, and revise it as necessary. Delete extra words, sentences, and paragraphs. Make every word count.

13.   Read your second draft aloud, listening for problems in logic or syntax.

14.   Copyedit your story, checking carefully for spelling, punctuation, grammar, and style problems.

15.   Deliver your finished story to the editor before deadline.

Kershner, J.W. (2009). The Elements of News Writing. Boston, MA: Pearson Education.

• << Previous: Home
• Next: Fact Checking >>
• Last Updated: Feb 28, 2024 3:16 PM
• URL: https://libguides.southernct.edu/journalism

• General Information
• Media Issues
• Digital Issues
• Educational Games
• Media Literacy Week
• e-Tutorials
• Our Approach
• Research Reports
• Young Canadians in a Wireless World
• For Parents
• Find Lessons & Resources
• Digital Media Literacy Outcomes by Province & Territory
• Digital Media Literacy Framework
• Media Literacy 101
• Digital Literacy 101
• Class Tutorials - Licensed
• My Licensed Resources
• Become a donor
• Become a volunteer
• Become a Corporate Partner
• Teen Fact-Checking Network

Writing the News Lesson Plan

Level: Grades 6 - 9

Author:  Matthew Johnson, Director of Education, MediaSmarts

This lesson is part of  USE, UNDERSTAND & ENGAGE: A Digital Media Literacy Framework for Canadian Schools .

In this lesson, students will write a news article for the school newspaper. The lesson begins with a discussion about freedom of speech and the important role it plays in journalism. Next, students will learn how to create news articles by developing 'lead paragraphs' and by using the 'inverted pyramid' model. Once this is done, they will be given time during class to select topics, conduct research, write their articles and proof read and peer edit their own and other's works.

Learning outcomes

Know: Students will learn the following essential domain knowledge:

• Reading media: Elements of a news article
• Consumer awareness: Markers of reliable news outlets and processes they use to provide reliable information
• Making and remixing: How to write a news article in “inverted pyramid” structure 

Understand: Students will learn the following key concepts/big ideas:

• Media are constructions: Media works were made many people who made choices that affect the final work
• Media have social and political implications: News plays an important role in informing the public; whose voices are (or aren’t’) included in news stories influences audiences’ views
• Each medium has a unique aesthetic form: Different media communicate in different ways

Do: Students will use tools to create a media work, understand how media makers’ choices and industry standards influence how works are made and experienced, and engage with issues of representation in news

This lesson and all associated documents (handouts, overheads, backgrounders) are available in an easy-print, pdf kit version.

Document Writing the News

• PRO Courses Guides New Tech Help Pro Expert Videos About wikiHow Pro Upgrade Sign In
• EDIT Edit this Article
• EXPLORE Tech Help Pro About Us Random Article Quizzes Request a New Article Community Dashboard This Or That Game Popular Categories Arts and Entertainment Artwork Books Movies Computers and Electronics Computers Phone Skills Technology Hacks Health Men's Health Mental Health Women's Health Relationships Dating Love Relationship Issues Hobbies and Crafts Crafts Drawing Games Education & Communication Communication Skills Personal Development Studying Personal Care and Style Fashion Hair Care Personal Hygiene Youth Personal Care School Stuff Dating All Categories Arts and Entertainment Finance and Business Home and Garden Relationship Quizzes Cars & Other Vehicles Food and Entertaining Personal Care and Style Sports and Fitness Computers and Electronics Health Pets and Animals Travel Education & Communication Hobbies and Crafts Philosophy and Religion Work World Family Life Holidays and Traditions Relationships Youth
• Browse Articles
• Learn Something New
• Quizzes Hot
• This Or That Game
• Train Your Brain
• Explore More
• Support wikiHow
• About wikiHow
• Log in / Sign up
• Education and Communications
• Article Writing

How to Write a Newspaper Article

Last Updated: April 18, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Gerald Posner . Gerald Posner is an Author & Journalist based in Miami, Florida. With over 35 years of experience, he specializes in investigative journalism, nonfiction books, and editorials. He holds a law degree from UC College of the Law, San Francisco, and a BA in Political Science from the University of California-Berkeley. He’s the author of thirteen books, including several New York Times bestsellers, the winner of the Florida Book Award for General Nonfiction, and has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History. He was also shortlisted for the Best Business Book of 2020 by the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. There are 11 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 329,801 times.

A newspaper article should provide an objective, factual account of an event, person, or place. Most newspaper articles are read quickly or skimmed by the reader, so the most important information should always appear first, followed by descriptive content that rounds out the story. By conducting research and following the correct organizational structure, you can create an informative newspaper article in no time.

Sample Articles

Conducting Interviews and Research

• Your sources should be experts in the field your article is focusing on, such as a certified professional, a professor, or an academic. You can use sources that have extensive experience or background in a field that relates to your article.
• Sources like a witness to an event can also be useful, especially if they have first-hand experience of the topic you are covering.

• You may need to conduct more than 1 interview with your sources, especially if they are a major source for the article. You can also send follow-up questions to your sources as needed.
• You will need to transcribe your interviews by typing them up to ensure you quote your sources correctly. Having transcriptions will also make fact checking your article and backing up your sources much easier.

• Make sure you cite the information properly in your article by noting the name or organization that provided the information. You should have credible sources to back up any claims or arguments made in the article.

• If you are writing the newspaper article for an editor, they may require you to provide a list of your sources for the article to show you have fact checked your work.

Structuring the Article

• For example, you may create a headline like, “Teen Girl Missing in Okotoks” or “Congress Stalls on Family Planning Bill.”
• In some cases, it may be easier to save the headline for last, after you have written the article, so you know what the focus of the article is and can sum it up clearly.

• For example, you may write a lead like, "An outbreak of flu in San Francisco has led to 3 elementary school closings this week, according to school officials." Or, "A missing girl originally from Okotoks was found Monday in an abandoned cabin in the Minnetonka area, according to local police."

• For example, you may write, “10-12 students have been diagnosed with the flu and health officials fear it could continue to spread if it is not contained.”

• For example, you may write, “The teen girl was reported missing on Friday afternoon by her mother after she did not come home from a study date at a friend’s house. She is the second girl to be reported missing in the past 2 weeks from the Okotoks area.”

• For example, you may write, “‘The girl is shaken, but does not appear to have any serious injuries,’ stated local Police Chief Wilborn.” Or you may write, “According to a statement by school officials, ‘The shutdown will prevent the flu from spreading further and ensure the safety of our students.’”
• Avoid using long quotes or more than 4 quotes in the article, as the reader may get confused or lost if there are too many quotations.

• For example, you may write, “The girl’s mother expressed relief for her daughter and concern about her community, noting, ‘I just hope no other girls go missing in this area.’”
• Or you may write, “Local health officials are urging parents to check the municipal health and wellness website, www.hw.org, for updates on when schools are able to reopen.”

Creating the Appropriate Voice and Tone

• For example, rather than write, “The missing girl’s mother thought it had to do with school,” you may write, “The missing girl’s mother thought bullying at school may have caused her daughter’s absences.”

• For example, rather than write, “A press conference will be held by local police tomorrow to address the missing girls and the public’s concerns,” you may write, “Local police will address the missing girls and the public’s concerns in a press conference tomorrow.”

• For example, if you're writing about two political candidates running against each other in an election, present both candidates in an equal light, rather than giving extra details about 1 candidate.
• If you're writing an op-ed piece, it's okay to mix some of your opinions with the facts.

Polishing the Article

• Reading the article aloud can also help you catch any spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors.

• For example, you may ask others questions like, “Were you able to understand what happened, based on the information in the article?” “Was the language clear and easy to follow?” “Was the article well supported with sources and quotes?”

• If you are writing the newspaper article for a class, make sure it falls within the prescribed word limit for the assignment.

Carve out a niche by gravitating towards underreported stories. "I personally tend to be drawn to stories that aren't paid much attention to, or stories that aren't on people's radar."

Expert Q&A

You Might Also Like

Expert Interview

Thanks for reading our article! If you'd like to learn more about writing as a career, check out our in-depth interview with Gerald Posner .

• ↑ https://guides.lib.vt.edu/researchmethods/interviews
• ↑ https://www.csus.edu/indiv/o/obriene/art116/readings/guide%20for%20conducting%20interviews.pdf
• ↑ https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2013/01/22/part-4-what-people-want-from-their-libraries/
• ↑ https://settlement.org/ontario/daily-life/communication/ethnic-and-cultural-media/what-is-fake-news-and-how-to-stop-spreading-misinformation/
• ↑ https://www.viasport.ca/communications-toolkit/module-4-how-write-engaging-sports-article
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/subject_specific_writing/journalism_and_journalistic_writing/writing_leads.html
• ↑ https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/735/05/
• ↑ https://www.lib.sfu.ca/about/branches-depts/slc/writing/sources/quoting
• ↑ https://lib.trinity.edu/in-text-citation-and-notes//
• ↑ https://www.csus.edu/campus-safety/police-department/_internal/_documents/rwm.pdf
• ↑ https://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/tech/evidence-based-practices/finalreport.pdf

About This Article

To write a newspaper article, gather all of your sources and verify any facts or sources you plan to use. Write an opening sentence that tells the readers the most essential details of the story. Write in third person, active voice, and maintain an authoritative tone throughout the article. Keep in mind the questions “Who,” “What,” “Where,” “When,” “Why,” and “How” when you’re writing your story, and try to answer as many of them as you can. When you’re finished writing the article, craft a short, engaging headline that tells readers what the article is about. To learn how reading your article out loud can help you proofread it, keep reading! Did this summary help you? Yes No

• Send fan mail to authors

Reader Success Stories

Atiya Bokhary

Feb 20, 2017

Did this article help you?

Hasini Gunathilaka

Dec 24, 2017

Oct 21, 2017

Oct 19, 2016

Jun 26, 2017

Featured Articles

Trending Articles

Watch Articles

• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• Do Not Sell or Share My Info
• Not Selling Info

wikiHow Tech Help Pro:

Develop the tech skills you need for work and life

• My Storyboards

Newspaper Project Worksheet Templates

Customize newspaper project worksheet templates.

If you're assigning this to your students, copy the worksheet to your account and save. When creating an assignment, just select it as a template!

What is a Newspaper Project?

A newspaper project template allows students in any subject to retell events from a story, history, or even science! They provide a fun structure for demonstrating comprehension and understanding, as well as help students reflect on events. These types of lessons can involve getting students to create their own newspaper or news article that explores a particular topic or subject. The activity can be done individually or within a group and can be adapted to different levels and subjects. This type of activity typically involves researching, writing, and editing news articles, as well as designing and formatting the newspaper layout. The main goal of a newspaper project for students is to improve students' writing and critical thinking skills, as well as their understanding of a particular topic or issue.

Why Are They Important and How Are They Best Used?

Newspaper school projects are the perfect way for students to flex their creativity and their own voice when summarizing or recounting events. This type of activity encourages research in a different outlet than writing a regular paper or another typical activity like a book report. Research studies have also found that newspaper projects can improve student learning outcomes. For example, a study by Azar and Oskouei (2015) found that a newspaper project-based approach to teaching English as a foreign language improves students' writing skills and their ability to retain vocabulary. Another study by Hall and Strangman (2002) found that newspaper projects helped students with disabilities develop literacy skills and critical thinking skills. Students making a newspaper for school projects can be designed and coordinated as fun as you want it to be, from having students create news features to having them do travel segments.

Suggested Newspaper Template Layout

It is relevant to note the different sections needed when creating editable newspaper templates.

• Title section of the newspaper
• Headline section with main picture
• Article 1 with story-relevant pictures
• Article 2 with story-relevant picture (optional)
• Remaining articles where relevant
• Fun Facts Section
• Games and puzzles section
• Classified ads section
• Credits section

Suggested Activity Progression

I. introduction.

Introduce the newspaper project for students and explain the objective of the activity.

II. Pre-Writing Activities

Brainstorming Session: Have students brainstorm topics they are interested in and would like to write about. This can range from the details of the individual articles themselves, or if they would like to create a specialized type of paper. For instance, do they want to create a fashion spread, a sports publication or something like a kids magazine?

Research: Provide students with different resource types to conduct research on their chosen topics. This is the perfect type of activity to incorporate the use of digital tools.

III. Writing Activities

Writing Workshop: Have students write their articles using the blank newspaper templates provided.

Peer Review: Encourage students to review and edit each other's work, focusing on grammar, spelling, and structure.

Suggested Newspaper Project Examples By Subject

These suggested activities can help students apply their knowledge and skills in different subject areas while also building their research, writing, and critical thinking abilities.

English Language Arts

• Students can create a mock newspaper article worksheet about a popular personality everyone wants to know more about. Writing a profile feature gives students an opportunity to develop their communication skills, description skills and creativity in expression.
• Students can create a newspaper article template about a character from a novel or play they have read, summarizing the character's story and traits.
• Students can create an article covering a recent event that happened, or one that is upcoming, its historical significance and other relevant details.

Social Studies

• Students can create a mock newspaper feature/article about a significant event in world history, such as the signing of the Magna Carta or the fall of the Berlin Wall.
• Students can create a newspaper about the daily life and culture of a particular region or country, researching topics such as food, art, music, and customs.
• Students can create newspaper articles about recent scientific or technological discoveries or breakthroughs.
• Students can create a newspaper about the environment, including articles on climate change, pollution, and endangered species.

Mathematics

• Students can create a newspaper article explaining a particular math-related concept, or using basic economics like grocery shopping and the price of goods to explain to readers how they are affected.
• Students can create a newspaper article template about the history of mathematics, highlighting important mathematicians and their contributions.
• Students can create a newspaper article assignment about a particular art movement or artist, exploring topics such as the style, themes, and techniques of the movement or artist.
• When students are assigned to create a newspaper for school projects, they can create articles about art events or exhibitions happening in their local area, including reviews of the shows and interviews with artists.

Instructions for Students on How To Make A Newspaper For A School Project

What to Include in a newspaper article template:

• Headline: The main purpose of the headline is to grab the reader's attention. It should be short and not include too many details, but just enough to encourage the reader to read the entire article.
• Byline: This is the section that gives credit to the author of the article.
• Location: Typical journalistic articles include the location close to the byline section and the location included is usually the press office from which the article is produced.
• Lead Paragraph: This is the initial paragraph that usually includes what journalists would call a ‘lede’ which is the ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘when’, ‘why’, ‘where’, and ‘how’ of the main story.
• Supporting Paragraph: These paragraphs elaborate on the rest of the details surrounding the story.

Additional Newspaper Insights

Creating a newspaper in class can get students excited but you can also incorporate lessons on the relevance and use of real newspapers so that students are not only developing their creative writing and design skills but are also able to analyze the content they consume from typical newspapers. Understanding how things work will help them to come up with their own newspaper idea for school projects.

Here are some additional tips to include for students:

• Newspapers are obligated to ensure that the content they produce is of a particular quality. Not only that but they are also required to ensure the information they produce is the most accurate in terms of the recollection of events or in terms of available historical and verifiable data.
• Based on the nature of reporting, fact-checking is important.
• The design of a newspaper is based on their usual style-guide. Each publication usually has its own style guide which provides a reference for details such as colors, fonts, print size, and layout and formatting. It also includes stylistic details such as grammar preferences and standards and approved referencing formats that can be used.
• When working on your own newspaper project template ideas, it's important to consider the competition. Using typical newspapers as a reference, in any locality, if there are more than one publications then all journalists might end up reporting on the same subject. With this in mind, it's important to ensure that all perspectives and opportunities for creativity and differentiation are taken. Otherwise, there would be no incentive for your publication being preferred.
• For classroom activities, the latitude for creativity is a lot more extensive. For instance, the opportunity not only exists to create a typical news-reporting print publication but also more niche and hobby related content. Students can be given the opportunity to explore their passions. For instance, those interested in fashion can create their own publication in the style of a real-life publication like Vogue, or those interested in sports can create something in the spirit of a publication like Sports Illustrated and the opportunities for such activities are endless in this setting.
• Additionally students can be given even more creative opportunities, since it is within the context of a classroom, meaning they can include even more specific sections related to their hobbies like the funnies, games and puzzles.

Other Suggestions For Students

• Interviews with visitors to the school
• Residential trips
• School productions
• Unusual pets or hobbies
• Interviews with parents who have interesting jobs
• The school community’s world connections

Even More Resources and Worksheet Examples

• Worksheet Template Gallery
• Sequencing Worksheet Templates
• Line Plot Worksheets
• Hall Passes Templates
• Meet the Teacher Templates
• Character Comparison Worksheets
• Social Studies Vocabulary Templates
• Seating Chart Templates
• Area and Perimeter Worksheets

How to Make a Newspaper Worksheet

Choose One of the Premade Newspaper Templates

We have lots of different style templates to choose from. Take a look at our newspaper example for inspiration!

Click on "Copy Template"

Once you do this, you will be directed to the storyboard creator.

Give Your Worksheet a Name!

Be sure to call it something related to the topic so that you can easily find it in the future.

Edit Your Worksheet

This is where you will include directions, specific questions and images, and make any aesthetic changes that you would like. The options are endless!

Click "Save and Exit"

When you are finished with your newspaper worksheet, click this button in the lower right hand corner to exit your storyboard.

From here you can print, download as a PDF, attach it to an assignment and use it digitally, and more!

Happy Creating!

Frequently Asked Questions About Newspaper Projects

What skills can students develop through newspaper school projects.

Newspaper article worksheets for students can help them develop skills in reading, writing, critical thinking, and research.

How can newspaper project examples be used to teach current events?

Newspaper school projects can be used to teach current events by having students research and write about news stories that are relevant to the class or subject area.

How can teachers differentiate newspaper projects for different grade levels and abilities?

Teachers can differentiate a newspaper making activity by providing different levels of scaffolding, such as graphic organizers or sentence frames, and by adjusting the complexity of the research and writing tasks.

Can newspaper projects be used in subjects other than English/Language Arts?

Yes, newspaper projects can be used in subjects such as Social Studies, Science, and even Math. For example, students can research and write articles about historical events or scientific discoveries.

What are some ways to incorporate technology into newspaper projects?

Students can use online resources to research news articles and multimedia elements such as images and videos can be included in the final product.

How can newspaper projects be assessed?

Newspaper projects can be assessed through different grading rubrics that evaluate the accuracy of the content, the quality of the writing, and the overall organization and presentation of the final product.

Try 1 Month For

30 Day Money Back Guarantee New Customers Only Full Price After Introductory Offer

Learn more about our Department, School, and District packages

• Thousands of images
• Custom layouts, scenes, characters
• And so much more!!

Create a Storyboard

Writing a News Article - End of Year News Report Template, Assignment & Rubric

• Google Apps™

Also included in

Description

Engage your students and school community in reflective writing with this end of the year news article assignment! Ideal for English, journalism, or social studies classes, this resource equips you to lead students through reporting on the school year's key events and highlights. Suitable for online learning with digital worksheets for Google Classroom®.

Included with this Year-End News Article Assignment:

✏️ Writing a News Article Slideshow Lesson - Microsoft PowerPoint®, Google Slides®, PDF

• Teach the Five Questions Model (W5-H)
• Explore the features of a news report (headlines, leads, location, supporting paragraphs)

✏️ Writing a News Article Informational Handout

• Explore the purpose and intent of year-end news articles
• Outline what to include in a news report

✏️ End-of-the-Year News Article Assignment Outline - Editable & Ready-to-Print

✏️ News Article Graphic Organizer - Digital & Print

• Scaffold news article writing
• Guide students through the writing process, including peer editing and reflection

✏️ News Article 4-Level Rubric - Editable & Ready-to-Print

✏️ Teacher Instructions for using this resource

How to use this End-of-the-Year News Article Assignment:

This project teaches students how to write end-of-the-year news articles. Students are introduced to the Five Questions Model (W5-H) , a writing framework that is applicable to any informational text. They will use this framework to write their own news articles about a major topic or event from the past school year.

You can start this lesson with the Writing a News Article Slideshow Lesson . Students will be introduced to the Five Questions Model (W5-H) and differentiate between different features of news articles, including headlines, leads, location of publication, and supporting paragraphs.

Students can also review the Writing a News Article Informational Handout . This handout explores the purpose and intent of year-end news articles and outlines what to include in a news report. 

More details about the assignment instructions can be found in the End-of-the-Year News Article Assignment Outline. This assignment outline is provided in both editable and ready-to-print formats to adapt to your classroom requirements.

Students can then begin the News Article Graphic Organizer. These worksheets will help them organize their information and guide them through the writing process: from brainstorming sessions to peer editing to reflection, this outline will prompt each step involved with writing a news article.

You can foster a collaborative learning environment by incorporating peer feedback sessions into the writing process. Encourage students to provide constructive criticism and suggestions for improvement to promote a growth mindset towards writing.

To evaluate this assignment, a 4-level rubric has been provided. This rubric is provided in both editable and ready-to-print formats; you can modify the success criteria in order to meet the needs of your unique classroom and curriculum expectations.

For classrooms utilizing Google Classroom®

To access the digital version of these resources, simply follow the instructions within the resource to copy the files directly to your Google Drive® .

✨ Kindly note that due to copyright restrictions, this resource is not editable.  This is a common practice within the TPT marketplace in order to protect the clipartists and software providers that have authorized their intellectual property for the development of this resource.

⭐ Customer Tip! ⭐

Want FREE CREDIT to go towards purchases?  Make sure to offer feedback for your downloads! Follow these instructions below:

• Go to your " My Purchases " page to find a " Provide Feedback " button next to each download.
• Follow this link to offer a quick rating and leave a short comment for the product. Each time you give feedback, TPT gives you feedback credits that you use to lower the cost of your future purchases!
• Your feedback is important to me as it helps me to continually improve my products and ensure they are meeting your needs!

Follow me! Be the first to know about product launches, sales, discounts, and free giveaways:

➾ Instagram

➾ Pinterest

➾ TeachersPayTeachers

For questions, collaborations, or other concerns: ✉ Contact me: [email protected]

Access my Free Resource Library !

Mondays Made Easy is committed to the continual improvement of resources to meet the current needs of teachers. This product was last updated on May 08, 2024.

Questions & Answers

Mondays made easy.

• We're hiring
• Help & FAQ
• Privacy policy
• Student privacy
• Terms of service
• Tell us what you think

• Request new password
• Create a new account

Dynamics of News Reporting and Writing: Foundational Skills for a Digital Age

Student resources, newswriting assignments.

Assignment 1: Storify it

Description of Assignment: Social media has forced journalists to rethink how they approach their jobs. The writing and reading now happen on both sides of the conversation, with readers and journalists often discussing issues through Twitter exchanges and Facebook posts.

There is a tool to help journalists tell compelling stories by putting social media posts into order and context. Turn what people post on social media into compelling stories. It’s called Storify.

Sign up for a free Storify account at storify.com. Then pick any event where you know people were microblogging or sharing to social media. It could be the fire department’s dramatic rescue of a cat in a tree, or it could be an outdoor music festival. Whatever--use keyword searches to identify and collect the posts and then use Storify to stitch them together with your own narrative.

Public Domain Source Material: https://storify.com/  

Assignment 2: Twitterstorm--A class assignment

Description of Assignment: Of all of the microblogging platforms, Twitter has become the dominant force for both disseminating and receiving short bits of information. Each tweet is sent to a group of followers the user has established.

Your assignment will take a few weeks to complete. The first step is creating a Twitter handle for a small group of newsgatherers, or one for the whole class. Give yourself a descriptive and accurate name, for example: Truman State News Group. Over several days, use that account to follow all of the movers and shakers in your community--the college administration, any professional journalists, or other prominent people. Chances are they will follow back.

When you finally have a healthy following of at least a few dozen, it’s time to report a story. Use a smartphone to cover a contentious city council meeting, or a football game. Share photos, short videos, and brief descriptions of what you experience. It’s OK to be somewhat informal, but write with a professional tone and steer clear of silliness or opinion. Follow the principles described in the textbook.

When you get back to class, use Storify (see above) to collect the tweets into a social media story.

Public Domain Source Material: Twitter.com  

Assignment 3: Blog it

Description of Assignment: The term “blog” is short for ‘web log.” In its purest form, a blog takes on a diary-style approach that demonstrates the writing style and mindset of the author in a way that is more personal than a traditional news article could. The most effective blogs are written in the first person, and loaded with insights into the author’s life and belief system. But an effective blogger cannot rely simply on personality. The best blogs have great reporting in them as well.

Here are four popular blogs:

• Gary Vaynerchuk’s blog about wine: https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/blog/
• Pat Flynn’s blog about online money making: https://www.smartpassiveincome.com/blog/
• The TechCrunch blog on all things tech: https://techcrunch.com
• Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician (a Syracuse University sports blog): https://www.nunesmagician.com/

What about the writing style and reporting in these blogs (or others) appeals to you?

Now take what you’ve learned from your text and work on a blog in a small group of classmates. You can either work separately or together. The blog item should be written as if it were to appear in a blog about campus life, with the audience being other students at your college or university.

Public Domain Source Material:  (See above.)

Assignment 4: IG me

Description of Assignment: Instagram is a visually-based social networking tool that gives people the space to share photos from their phones or other mobile devices. Unlike other forms of social media, Instagram is almost entirely designed for mobile use--you can’t even post to Instagram from a PC.

Instagram is a place where words take a backseat to images, but captions are still important and help provide important context for the photo.

It’s a great tool for primarily print reporters to hone their photography skills. Using the principles behind the “rule of 3”--skim ahead in your textbook--spend 30 min out of class documenting campus life, finding beautiful or hidden scenes on campus that your audience will find interesting. Don’t forget to use the principles of interviewing you’ve already learned--make sure the people in your photos are identified in your captions and try to get a great quote for every picture.

Post three images and come back to class and compare you work with that of other students’. Which images were the most appealing?

If you have enough good images to document a day in the life of your college, feel free to use Storify to collect them all--and then use Twitter to tweet out the link to your Storify story.

Public Domain Source Material:

instagram.com

twitter.com

storify.com

• International
• Education Jobs
• Schools directory
• Resources Education Jobs Schools directory News Search

Writing a Newspaper Article - English Lesson and Task KS3

Subject: English

Age range: 11-14

Resource type: Lesson (complete)

Last updated

8 February 2024

• Share through email
• Share through twitter
• Share through linkedin
• Share through facebook
• Share through pinterest

• How to write a newspaper article
• How to format the article
• What to include in the article
• Newspaper article task

Creative Commons "Sharealike"

Your rating is required to reflect your happiness.

It's good to leave some feedback.

Something went wrong, please try again later.

This resource hasn't been reviewed yet

To ensure quality for our reviews, only customers who have downloaded this resource can review it

Report this resource to let us know if it violates our terms and conditions. Our customer service team will review your report and will be in touch.

Not quite what you were looking for? Search by keyword to find the right resource:

Reading and Writing Newspaper Articles ESL Lesson

• Resources for Teachers
• Pronunciation & Conversation
• Writing Skills
• Reading Comprehension
• Business English
• TESOL Diploma, Trinity College London
• M.A., Music Performance, Cologne University of Music
• B.A., Vocal Performance, Eastman School of Music

Students often read newspapers for a wide variety of reasons, not least of which is to keep informed in English. As you know, newspaper writing style tends to have three levels: Headlines, leading phrases, and article content. Each of these has its own style. This lesson focuses on calling students' attention to this type of writing style on a deeper, grammatical level. It ends with students writing up their own short articles with a follow-up listening comprehension opportunity.

Aim: Improved writing skills and understanding newspaper writing style

Activity: Writing short newspaper articles

Level: Intermediate to upper intermediate

• Use the provided example newspaper article, or take a newspaper into the class.
• Ask students to read the newspaper article and summarize the contents.
• Have students analyze the difference between the headline, leading sentence and article content in terms of tense usage and vocabulary in small groups (3 to 4 students).
• Headline: Simple tenses, idiomatic, flashy vocabulary, no use of function words
• Leading sentence: Present perfect tense often used to give general overview.
• Article content: Proper tense usage, including a change from present perfect to past tenses to give detailed, specific information about what, where and when something happened.
• Once the differences have been understood, have students split up into pairs or small groups (3 to 4 students)
• Using the worksheet, small groups should write their own newspaper articles using the headlines provided or come up with their own stories.
• Have students read their newspaper articles aloud allowing you to incorporate some listening comprehension into the lesson.

FAKE VAN GOGH SELLS FOR $35 MILLION

A fake painting supposedly by Vincent Van Gogh has been sold for $35 million in Paris.

Paris June 9, 2004

Imagine this: It's the chance of a lifetime. You have the necessary cash and you have the opportunity to buy a Van Gogh. After purchasing the painting and placing it on your living room wall to show to all your friends, you discover that the painting is a forgery!

That's what happened to an anonymous telephone bidder who purchased Sunflowers in the Wind at the Peinture Company in Paris, France. The first (supposed) Van Gogh painting to have been auctioned since last year's record sale of $40 million, the forgery was sold for $35 million. The painting had also been reported to be the last ever offered for sale, Britain's Daily Times reported Thursday.

Unfortunately, shortly after the masterpiece had been transferred to the buyer's home, the Academy of Fine Arts released a statement saying that Sunflowers in the Wind was a fake. Upon further investigation, the report proved to be true. The unlucky buyer was forced to recognize that he or she had indeed purchased a forgery.

Choose a Headline and Write Your Own Newspaper Article

Newspaper Article 1

TRUCK CRASHES INTO LIVING ROOM

Leading sentence: Provide your leading sentence.

Article content: ​Write at least three short paragraphs about the incident.

Newspaper Article 2

LOCAL COUNCIL: ACTION NOT PROMISES

Article content: Write at least three short paragraphs about the incident.

Newspaper Article 3

LOCAL FOOTBALL PLAYER WINS BIG

• Passive Voice Usage and Examples
• How to Understand Newspaper Headlines
• Future Tenses "Going to" vs. "Will"
• Vocabulary Chart ESL Lesson Plan
• Identifying Skill Requirement for Reading
• How to Teach English Using Newspapers
• Using a Wider Range of Vocabulary - ESL Lesson Plan
• Creating a Newscast as an ESL Lesson
• What's Wrong With These Sentences?
• Teaching Comparative and Superlative Forms to ESL Students
• ESL Lesson Plan on Stereotypes
• Standard Lesson Plan Format for ESL Teachers
• Lesson Plan on Switching Between Present Perfect and Past Simple
• ESL Grammar Lesson Plan: How to Use "Like"
• Past Continuous Lesson Plan for ESL Learners
• ESL Lesson Plan: Travel Plans

Nationals Promote James Wood, Designate Eddie Rosario For Assignment

• Orlando Cepeda Passes Away
• Nationals Planning To Call Up James Wood On Monday
• Rays Could Make Multiple Starters Available On Trade Market
• Phillies To Place Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber On Injured List
• 2024-25 MLB Free Agent Power Rankings: June Edition
• Hoops Rumors
• Pro Football Rumors
• Pro Hockey Rumors

MLB Trade Rumors

By Steve Adams | July 1, 2024 at 8:18am CDT

The Nationals have made top prospect James Wood ’s previously reported promotion to the major leagues official, formally announcing the selection of his contract from Triple-A Rochester. In a corresponding move, veteran outfielder Eddie Rosario has been designated for assignment.

Wood’s promotion to the majors was reported last Friday, and MLBTR’s Darragh McDonald broke down the vaunted outfielder’s impending ascension to the majors at the time. The 21-year-old had laid waste to upper-minors pitching this season, delivering an outrageous .353/.463/.595 slash with 10 homers, 16 doubles and nearly as many walks (40) as strikeouts (42). Wood has drawn a free pass in a massive 17.3% of his trips to the plate and chipped in a 10-for-11 showing in stolen base attempts as well.

A second-round pick of the Padres back in 2021, Wood has elevated his status to the point that he’s widely regarded as the top yet-to-debut prospect in the sport. Baseball America and MLB.com both rank him as the game’s No. 3 prospect, but the players ahead of him between those two lists ( Paul Skenes , Jackson Holliday , Junior Caminero ) have all reached the majors at least briefly. Based on the timing of his promotion, Wood will now be under team control through at least the 2030 season and won’t be eligible for arbitration until the 2027-28 offseason.

Wood now joins top Nationals starter MacKenzie Gore and shortstop CJ Abrams as potential core pieces acquired by the Nationals in the blockbuster trade that sent Juan Soto to San Diego two summers ago. The Nats still have minor league outfielder Robert Hassell III and minor league lefty Jarlin Susana working their way through the system as well. Neither is viewed as having the type of ceiling Wood, Abrams and Gore have already shown, but Hassell is still just 22 and reached Double-A this year, while the 20-year-old Susana is in his second season at Low-A. Both players could yet reach the big leagues in the next few years.

Turning to the 32-year-old Rosario, he’s long been seen as a potential casualty of Wood’s big league promotion. The former Twins, Braves and Guardians outfielder signed a minor league deal with a $2MM base salary during spring training and made the team’s Opening Day roster despite a poor showing in nine spring contests. Rosario had an awful first month of the season (.088/.137/.162 through the end of April), followed by a blistering May (.253/.319/.530) before falling into another major swoon (.191/.200/.250 in June).

Overall, Rosario’s time with the Nats will draw to a close with a .183/.226/.329 batting line. That’s 46% worse than league-average production, by measure of wRC+ (54). Rosario’s 5.5% walk rate was his lowest since 2019, while his 23% strikeout rate is roughly in line with the 2022-23 rates he showed in Atlanta (but a far cry from the 16.1% mark he turned in from 2017-21).

The Braves acquired Rosario in a 2021 salary-dump deal with Cleveland and immediately saw him go on a magical run down the stretch, slashing .271/.330/.573 with seven homers in 106 plate appearances. He went on to deliver a legendary 14-for-25 performance with three home runs during the National League Championship Series, taking home NLCS MVP honors in the process, before slumping in the World Series.

Rosario’s late surge with Atlanta prompted the team to re-sign him on a two-year, $18MM contract that proved regrettable. He hit .212/.259/.328 in his first season of that contract, and while Rosario bounced back with 21 homers in 2023, his overall batting line was effectively league average (100 wRC+) while his defense continued to receive lackluster grades. Rosario was a productive everyday outfielder with the Twins from 2017-20 but in four seasons since that time he’s turned in a .236/.283/.403 batting line with poor defense and mounting strikeout rates.

The Nats will have five days to trade Rosario, release him or place him on outright waivers, though a veteran with Rosario’s service time would surely just reject an outright assignment to Triple-A anyhow. It’s unlikely that any team would claim even the modest remainder on Rosario’s contract. The likeliest outcome is a release, at which point Rosario will be free to sign with any team. A new club could owe him only the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the big league roster. That sum would be subtracted from what the Nats still owe him, but Washington will be on the hook for the majority of his contract at this point.

31 Comments

8 hours ago

Ewww que the music for Rosario to the Braves!

7 hours ago

If he wants to hang out in Gwinnett, then go for it, but it’s a lateral move at Best. At least Duvall plays good defense.

Queue the music for Padres regret for trading Wood for 1.5 years of Soto

2 hours ago

I am not sure they regret getting soto, but the regret is not living up to making WS while they had Soto

38 mins ago

I agree, if they had won the WS, it would have been a worthwhile trade

Tidy piece of business here.

I had no idea of his size.

Baseball ref lists James Wood at 6′ 7″, 234 lbs.

Does size matter?

So Washington has Wood.

Tell us something we didn’t know.

Toothless grin 🙂

Most Presidents of Baseball Ops and GMs would be fired for trading 3-5 foundational players and pieces for 1 1/2 years of a good hit, below average defense OF/DH (Soto) a very “overrated player”.

Preller is skilled at finding and signing young talent.

Preller is also skilled at blowing up the Padres farm system 2 or 3. times during his 10 year tenure with the Padres.

Preller was hired by the Padres Aug 6, 2014 and still has not taken the Padres to the World Series. Preller still has not won a World Series with the Padres. Peller still has not constructed a team that makes the playoffs on a regular basis.

Preller has constructed some interesting and fun teams. But, he has fallen short on constructing a perennial playoffs team, a team that makes the World Series multiple years, a team that WINS A WORLD SERIES!

Yes, I know Soto, if he continues performing at a high level for decades without major injuries and setbacks has a shot at the Hall of Fame.

But, as always, baseball is a team sport; Trophies, rings and championships generally go to the best team from top to bottom: Front Office, Scouting, Player Development, the entire Roster of Players and the Farm System, wise and supportive ownership that hires the best baseball experts and lets them make most baseball decisions based on the business plan and budget they put forth and who has the wherewithal to spend money for critical needs to put the team “over the top” when necessary.

Leaving aside that Soto is not overrated, the deal was for 2.5 years of Soto. That was, effectively 3 pennant races, for a team that felt it was close to a WS run. That the Padres subsequently 1/ didn’t achieve their goal and 2/traded Soto….does not affect the valuation of the trade when made.

6 hours ago

The Soto trade was fine; the real issue was getting handcuffed with the Bogaerts signing (which is understandable in retrospect with Seidler’s declining health). I wonder what the team would look like without the Soto trade: Abrams in left field (would they have resigned Profar?), Merill in the infield, Sullivan as the backup C, and probably Lugo/Gore in the rotation instead of Cease/King/Vasquez. Tantalizing, for sure.

To add to that, maybe a 2024 reunion with Snell and Sanchez.

The Padres currently hold the 2nd playoff WC spot and are outplaying the Braves since June 1st. The haters can hate. But AJ will have the Padres in the playoffs in 2024 with the no 1 WC spot and playing a 3 game playoff series in Petco in September.

4 hours ago

AJ has wasted SO much money (hosmer, bogaerts, etc) and handcuffed the team for many years. He is great at talent evaluation and drafting, but may be the worst team builder in MLB history. This year, there will be multiple SS in the all star game that AJ drafted (and deserves credit for) but traded away (Turner, Abrams). Imagine if he built a team around Trea Turner instead of aged Matt Kemp! You could make a team of all stars that AJ traded away for wasted high price veterans that are out of baseball or have not provided the promised consistent winning or a WS victory. Imagine if he had someone competent to translate his talent evaluation into a winning team. Sad wasted decade for the Padres and this current team is fun to watch, but not likely going anywhere in the playoffs (hope I am wrong).

3 hours ago

@DBoyd. Ive been a critic of Preller, as much as anyone, and he clearly has made some serious mistakes (such as T. Turner, the first Soto trade, yadda yadda), but it seems he’s also not given credit where credit is due in building rosters. The Pads BP has always been stellar, with a number of diamonds in the rough found by Preller. This year it’s hard to fault Preller’s bargain additions of Profar, Estrada, Donovan Solano, etc…The trades that brought in Arraez, Cease, Higgy, King, Vasquez seem to be very successful. The highly big gamble of converting Merrill to CF and giving him 100% playing time was smart given he’s a leading ROY candidate.

I think AJ is performing better under the tighter budget restrictions. His job might be in jeopardy if they don’t make the playoffs this year but if they do make the playoffs with major injuries to Tatis, Bogaerts, Musgrove and Darvish, maybe we all reconsider the narrative that he’s a poor at roster-building.

40 mins ago

Fair points, Brew. Still, I want him to acknowledge his 10 years of failure! Three failed ‘all ins’ now. If he just had let his superior drafting and talent recognition drive his roster construction, the Pads may have already had that elusive title. Maybe they will get lucky this year and those good decisions this year will all be worth it and fix his last decade of failure.

Just say no AA to Rosario….

Sad Rosario didn’t work out. I’m headed to the game on Thursday the 4th, will likely see Wood in the morning that day.

You don’t see Wood every morning?

Cool that he’s debuting on a day with so few games — should be a lot of eyeballs on him today. I still vividly remember the HR he hit in spring training in 2022; he had such a compact swing for a dude his size even then.

Dear god I hope the Braves don’t bring Eddie back. Outfield is already terrible

5 hours ago

Rosario has to be an upgrade over no hitting Luke Williams.

.253 is blistering?

He’s hitting 353 champ not 253

I think teddyj is referring to Rosario’s slash line in May, which was by far his strongest month with the Nats.

Yes it appears so. Rosario had a slugging percentage over 500 that month.

The Great about that Soto trade for the Nats is …Not only the tremendous return they got(Gore,Wood,Hassell etc) but the Fact that when Soto becomes a free agent this offseason the Nats will be one of the teams able to bid for his services!!!!!!

Win-Win-Win

Siedler wanted a Championship ASAP he didn’t have time to wait for prospects . That was his wish with all do respect. Last year was a mess and failure I can’t blame him for trying and trading the future for Soto a great talent to make that happen in his last days. Thank you Peter Siedler for trying .

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Please login to leave a reply.

Log in Register

• Feeds by Team
• Commenting Policy
• Privacy Policy

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

Username or Email Address

Remember Me

Watch CBS News

Steve Bannon reports to federal prison in Connecticut, says he's "proud" to serve his time

By Kathryn Watson

Updated on: July 1, 2024 / 12:37 PM EDT / CBS News

Washington  — Trump ally Steve Bannon reported to federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut, on Monday to begin serving a four-month sentence for defying a subpoena from the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. 

Bannon arrived at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury around noon and was formally taken into custody.

Before beginning his sentence Monday, Bannon told supporters and reporters that he is "proud" to go to prison, blasting Attorney General Merrick Garland, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Biden. 

"I am proud to go to prison," Bannon told supporters and protesters Monday before reporting to prison. "If this is what it takes to stand up to tyranny. If this is what it takes to stand up to the Garland corrupt, criminal DOJ, if this is what it takes to stand up to Nancy Pelosi, if this is what it takes to stand up to Joe Biden, to Joe Biden, I'm proud to do it."

Asked what he expects from the next several months, Bannon responded, "a Trump victory." 

Bannon made an emergency request to the Supreme Court last month, after a federal appeals court rejected his effort to stay out of prison for contempt of Congress, but the highest court also rejected his plea . 

Bannon was convicted two years ago on two counts of contempt of Congress, and was sentenced to four months behind bars in October 2022. Since then, Bannon and his legal team have exhausted all possible delays and appeals, to no avail. 

Bannon's contempt of Congress conviction stems from his refusal to comply with the House committee's subpoenas, as congressional investigators sought his communications with former President Donald Trump after the 2020 presidential election, among other things. Bannon's first day in prison comes as the Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 opinion that Trump is protected by some level of immunity for his acts in office. 

Bannon, age 70, is expected to be out of prison before he turns 71 in late November. 

Cassandra Gauthier and Nikki Battiste contributed to this report 

• Steve Bannon
• Donald Trump

Kathryn Watson is a politics reporter for CBS News Digital, based in Washington, D.C.

More from CBS News

Supreme Court rejects Steve Bannon's bid to remain out of prison on appeal

House Republicans sue Garland, seeking Biden audio

Disappointed Democrats stick with Biden after rough debate performance

What comes next after the Supreme Court's Trump immunity ruling

Slow-walk? Supreme Court Trump immunity ruling is finally here, likely too late for trial before election

Trump's appeal of his immunity claim delayed the trial by six months, which is much longer than the high court took to decide high profile cases involving the pentagon papers and watergate tapes..

• The Supreme Court is set to rule Monday on whether Donald Trump is immune as a former president to criminal charges he tried to steal the 2020 election.
• Legal experts say the decision may already be too late for more trials before the Nov. 5 election because they require months of pretrial preparation.

Editor's note: Read USA TODAY's full coverage Monday of the Supreme Court decision on Donald Trump's immunity case . 

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court closed out its term Monday with a decision on its biggest case of year − does Donald Trump have immunity as a former president that prevents him from standing trial on charges he tried to overturn the 2020 election .

But before the Court settled this legal battle, in many ways, Trump may have already won the war.

The trial at stake still has months of pretrial preparation pending, with more delays possible, even if the justices don't throw out the charges. Two other pending criminal trials haven’t even been scheduled . In other words, legal experts say, the ruling may already too late to hold any of his three pending criminal trials before the Nov. 5 election.

“By stalling so long that a trial is now unlikely, the justices have already succeeded in effectively giving Trump immunity regardless of the content of their ruling,” Norm Eisen, who served as a special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee during Trump’s first impeachment, and Mike Podhorzer, chair of the Defend Democracy Project, an election advocacy group, said in a joint statement.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to all the charges and argued that if anyone is committing election interference, it is the Biden administration federal prosecutors who aim to keep him in court and off the campaign trail while he tries to unseat President Joe Biden . Trump has fought to postpone all the trials until after the election .

Did the Supreme court slow-walk the Trump immunity case?

One reason Trump’s critics complain the Supreme Court slow-walked its decision is because the justices have ruled quickly in other high-profile cases.

Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith asked the high court to reject the immunity claim right away in December, after U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled Trump must stand trial.

Instead, the high court waited for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to rule that Trump isn’t immune. The trial has been delayed six months.

Laurence Tribe, a Harvard law professor emeritus , has said a potential trial in October is unlikely because it would be so close to the election and the Supreme Court’s pace in reaching its decision was “inexcusable.”

In contrast, the Supreme Court:

• Prevented the Nixon administration from blocking the New York Times from publishing a secret history of the Vietnam War four days after hearing arguments in June 1971.
• Ordered then-President Richard Nixon to turn over secret tapes of White House conversations to a special prosecutor 16 days after hearing arguments in July 1974.
• Ended voting challenges that effectively handed the 2000 election to President George W. Bush a day after hearing arguments that December.
• Allowed Trump’s name to remain on the Colorado primary ballot less than a month after hearing arguments Feb. 8 about removing it because of his role in the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021.

What Trump trials are pending?

Trump faces three pending trials, which are all on hold for various reasons.

The federal election-interference trial had been scheduled March 4 but was delayed indefinitely by the immunity challenge. The Supreme Court heard the case on its last day of arguments in April and is handing down its decision Monday, on the last day of its term.

In Florida, federal prosecutors are jousting with defense lawyers about what evidence will be allowed in his trial on charges he hoarded classified documents after leaving the White House.

The classified records case had been scheduled May 20 but was delayed indefinitely by pretrial arguments about what evidence will be allowed. In early April, prosecutors proposed a July trial and Trump’s lawyers suggested August. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon completed a round of hearings a week ago , but contemplated holding more, including one on whether prosecutors should have bene permitted to question one of Trump’s lawyers .

The Justice Department has an informal rule not to bring charges in political cases within 60 days of an election. But prosecutor Jay Bratt told Cannon on March 1 that a fall trial wouldn’t violate the rule because the indictments were handed up a year earlier.

In Georgia, election racketeering charges are on hold while the state’s highest court decides whether to remove the prosecutor, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Fulton County Superior Judge Scott McAfee has continued hearing pretrial motions. But the state Court of Appeals set arguments for Oct. 4 , leaving little time for a decision or trial before the election.

Seven months to prepare a defense? The election is Nov. 5

The reason Chutkan's trial is unlikely to start before the election is because she assured Trump after his indictment Aug. 1 he would have seven months to prepare his defense. She stopped the clock while he appealed the decision by her − and the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals − that he was not immune from charges.

Chutkan paused pretrial preparations on Dec. 13. At that point, 134 days had passed since the indictment and another 81 days of preparation remained until the original trial date.

Starting the clock again Monday would yield a start date around Sept. 20. The trial is projected to last six weeks so it could potentially be completed before the election.

But any other potential appeal during the trial preparation could push off the trial indefinitely.

Trump is expected to argue that at least one of the four charges against him is invalid, based on a Supreme Court decision Friday . The justices ordered the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to review the obstruction charge against Joseph Fischer, an alleged rioter from the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021, because the law was written to apply to destruction of paperwork, which he was not accused of doing. Trump could ask for his own review.

Likewise, the justices could order the lower courts to review the election interference charges against Trump based on his immunity claims, which could also take time. He could potentially appeal any of the decisions about whether charges are legitimate.

Whatever the high court decides, the trial clock might not start ticking immediately. Appeals courts typically notify lower courts about their decisions in what is formally called a "mandate," so they can restart proceedings. The justices could tell Chutkan to restart “forthwith,” or immediately. But the mandate to restart Trump’s trial clock could take up to a month, according to Sarah Isgur, a Harvard Law School graduate and former spokesperson for the Justice Department during the Trump administration, on her Advisory Opinions podcast Wednesday.

Trump's New York guilty verdict likely the only one before Nov. 5 election

Delays in the three pending cases through Trump’s vigorous defenses in each case left the New York hush money trial as the only one resolved.

Trump was convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records for trying to hide reimbursements to former personal lawyer Michael Cohen, who paid porn actress Stormy Daniels for her silence before the 2016 election about an alleged sexual episode with Trump.

Sentencing on the felonies is scheduled July 11. Trump has vowed to appeal.

• SI SWIMSUIT
• SI SPORTSBOOK

Exciting Seattle Mariners' Reliever Gets Timeline For When He'll Start Rehab Assignment

Brady farkas | jun 29, 2024.

• Seattle Mariners

Seattle Mariners ' relief pitcher Gregory Santos took another major step forward in his recovery on Friday afternoon and it's led to some exciting news.

After throwing a 21-pitch live session at T-Mobile Park, we now know when Santos will begin his rehab assignment. He's been out all year with a lat issue.

Per @LookoutLanding on social media:

Justin Hollander says Gregory Santos will start a rehab assignment with Tacoma July 2nd

Justin Hollander says Gregory Santos will start a rehab assignment with Tacoma July 2nd — Lookout Landing (@LookoutLanding) June 28, 2024

Considering that Santos hasn't played in any games at all this year (he was injured in spring training), it's surprising to see him instantly come out of the gate at Triple-A, but Single-A Everett is on the road that day, so maybe this is just more about reducing travel than level of competition. Tacoma is home that day against Salt Lake City.

Given that Santos has been out all year, he'll require a lengthy rehab assignment that will have many more boxes to check. He'll need to show that he can throw all of his pitches, work on back-to-back days and show the ability to recover without discomfort. There has been hope that he'd be able to join the M's in July and that looks possible still at this point if everything goes well.

If and when Santos is able to join the team, he'll add another dimension to the back end of the bullpen for manager Scott Servais. He features an upper-90s fastball and has a ton of movement.

Here's what Ryan Bliss had to say after facing Bliss on Friday, per Curtis Crabtree:

Ryan Bliss faced Santos both in Tampa and here today and spoke highly of his stuff, especially his sinker. “It’s 98 with splitter movement. You just don’t see that. The ball drops out of nowhere. You don’t really see it. It’s something unique and it’s a really good pitch.”

Ryan Bliss faced Santos both in Tampa and here today and spoke highly of his stuff, especially his sinker. “It’s 98 with splitter movement. You just don’t see that. The ball drops out of nowhere. You don’t really see it. It’s something unique and it’s a really good pitch.” https://t.co/YY9OKLFh2V — Curtis Crabtree (@Curtis_Crabtree) June 28, 2024

The Mariners will play the Twins again on Saturday night at 7:10 p.m. PT.

Follow Inside the Mariners on social media

Continue to follow our Inside the Mariners coverage on social media by liking us on  Facebook  and by following Brady on "X" @ wdevradiobrady

RELATED MARINERS CONTENT

BRADY FARKAS

• Election 2024
• Entertainment
• Newsletters
• Photography
• AP Investigations
• AP Buyline Personal Finance
• AP Buyline Shopping
• Press Releases
• Israel-Hamas War
• Russia-Ukraine War
• Global elections
• Asia Pacific
• Latin America
• Middle East
• Election Results
• Delegate Tracker
• AP & Elections
• Auto Racing
• 2024 Paris Olympic Games
• Movie reviews
• Book reviews
• Financial Markets
• Business Highlights
• Financial wellness
• Artificial Intelligence
• Social Media

Jury awards $700k to Seattle protesters jailed for writing anti-police slogans in chalk on barricade

This image taken from a Seattle Police Department body camera shows part of anti-police graffiti written in chalk on a concrete barricade outside of the East Precinct of the Seattle Police Department, Jan. 1, 2021, in Seattle. On Friday, June 21, 2024, the four protestors who were jailed for the graffiti were awarded nearly $700,000 by a federal jury who decided their civil rights had been violated. (Seattle Police Department via AP)

• Copy Link copied

Four protesters who were jailed for writing anti-police graffiti in chalk on a temporary barricade near a Seattle police precinct have been awarded nearly $700,000 after a federal court jury decided their civil rights were violated.

The Jan. 1, 2021, arrests of the four followed the intense Black Lives Matter protests that rocked Seattle and numerous other cities throughout the world the previous summer in the wake of the death of George Floyd, a Black man. He was killed when a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck for about 9 1/2 minutes while Floyd was handcuffed and pleading that he couldn’t breathe.

“The tensions of that summer and the feelings that were alive in the city at that time are obviously a big part of this case,” said Nathaniel Flack, one of the attorneys for the four protesters. “And what the evidence showed was that it was animus towards Black Lives Matter protesters that motivated the arrests and jailing of the plaintiffs.”

Derek Tucson, Robin Snyder, Monsieree De Castro and Erik Moya-Delgado were each awarded $20,000 in compensatory damages and $150,000 in punitive damages when the 10-person jury returned its verdict late Friday.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court against the city of Seattle and four police officers, Ryan Kennard, Dylan Nelson, Alexander Patton and Michele Letizia. The jury found the city and officers arrested and jailed the four as retaliation, and the officers acted with malice, reckless disregard or oppression denying the plaintiffs their First Amendment rights.

Email messages sent Tuesday to the Seattle city attorney’s office, Seattle police and the police guild seeking comment were not immediately returned.

On New Year’s Day 2021, the four protesters had used chalk and charcoal to write messages like “Peaceful Protest” and “Free Them All” on a temporary barricade near the police department’s East Precinct. Body cam images introduced at trial showed at last three police cruisers responded to the scene to arrest the four for violating the city’s anti-graffiti laws.

The four spent one night in jail, but they were never prosecuted.

Flack said testimony presented at trial showed police don’t usually enforce the law banning the use of sidewalk chalk. In fact, attorneys showed video of officers writing “I (heart) POLICE” with chalk on a sidewalk at another event in Seattle.

Flack said it was also unusual the four were jailed because it came during an outbreak of COVID-19 and only the most serious offenders were to be incarcerated.

“These officers were doing what they called the ‘protester exception’, which meant that if you’re a protester, if you have a certain message or a certain kind of speech that you’re putting out there, then they will book you into jail,” Flack said.

“The jury not only found that the individual officers were doing that, but that there was actually a broader practice that the city leadership knew about and was responsible for as well,” he said.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs said this should be a warning and a lesson to police officers and other government officials across the county who violate the First Amendment rights of citizens.

“This was a content-based and viewpoint-based law enforcement decision that resulted in our clients being locked up for what they had to say,” Flack said. “The important thing here is that the police cannot jail people for the content of their speech.”

Thiessen reported from Anchorage, Alaska.