HOW TO SEND
The correspondent sends his story in one of three ways—by telegraph, mail or long-distance telephone.
Practically all news of immediate interest is sent by telegraph. Assume that you are the correspondent of a morning newspaper and at 5 o’clock in the afternoon have a story of a fire and panic in a theater, in which five persons were killed and twelve injured. You have plenty of time to send what the newspaper calls a query—a brief dispatch setting forth the salient facts of the story. Nearly all newspapers require their correspondents to file queries on early news.
An acceptable query in this case would be:
“Theater fire and panic; five dead; twelve injured; five hundred.” This means that you are prepared to furnish 500 words on the story. It is unnecessary to say, “Do you want the news?” or “How much?” The dispatch in itself is a question.
Get your story into shape to put on the wire without delay if it is ordered. If it is not wanted, no reply to the query will be received.
Assume that the story is ordered in this dispatch: “Rush three hundred fifty theater fire.” That means that the correspondent is to keep his story within 350 words. The fact that a newspaper does not order a story or orders less than the correspondent offers does not necessarily imply that his news judgment is questioned. Stories that ordinarily would be used may be crowded out by a rush of news of greater importance. One story like that of the San Francisco earthquake and fire will cause the omission or rigid condensation of news that usually would be “featured.” Sometimes the correspondent’s story is not ordered because the facts are covered in the reports of a news gathering organization as fully as the newspaper desires.
After the date line at the beginning of your story write the time of filing, thus: “Centralia, Mo., June 6.—Filed 6:30 P. M.” This will enable the newspaper to fix the blame if the dispatch is delayed. In sending more than one story make each a separate dispatch, with date line and signature.
For morning newspapers file all day news as early as possible, but instruct the telegraph operator not to send until 6 P. M., when the night press rate, which is cheaper than the day rate, goes into effect. Promptness is essential. News matter received after 11 P. M. is likely to be thrown away unless of great importance.
Never write a “blind” query, such as “prominent citizen killed” or “horrible accident.” State plainly and specifically what your news is. It is especially important that the correspondent observe this rule in sending late news of comparatively small happenings. Much can be compressed into a hundred words. If it is too late to order more, your dispatch—in this case a compressed news story rather than a query—can be treated as complete in itself.