WRITING FOR THE WIRE
The general rules that govern all news writing apply with equal or greater force to the telegraph story. So far from taking an unworthy advantage of his comparative freedom from supervision, the correspondent should feel perhaps even more keenly than the local reporter the news writer’s obligation to be absolutely fair and accurate. It goes without saying that he should be concise, because the newspaper pays for every word that he sends over the wire. On the other hand he should never sacrifice clearness to save a few words. Few newspapers want their dispatches skeletonized—boiled down, that is, by the omission of such words as “the” and “of.” If the dispatch is skeletonized intelligently, the editor in the office can easily supply the missing words, but most newspapers consider that any saving effected in this way is more than offset by the loss of time in editing the story. Unless a newspaper specifically states that it wants its news in skeleton form, the correspondent should put it on the wire exactly as he would like to see it in print.
In estimating the value of his story to the paper he serves, the correspondent should never let his personal interest in the doings of his own community bias his judgment. A story that is worth a column of space in his local paper may be of no value whatever to a paper published 100 miles away. In “sizing up” a story let the correspondent imagine himself a stranger, in the community for the first time. What would be of interest to him? What, in other words, is of more than purely local concern? Not the fact, surely, that a new sidewalk is being laid on Elm street. That is a matter in which the residents on Elm street, Smithville, may be vitally interested, but it has no news value outside of Smithville. The correspondent who makes a newspaper pay tolls on trivial items is certain to get a peremptory order to stop sending, and if he is not an authorized correspondent, the telegraph tolls may be charged back to him.
No newspaper worthy of the name will knowingly print fake stories. If for no other reason than self-interest, the correspondent should hew close to the narrow line of truth, for the faker cannot hope long to escape detection and dismissal. Neither should the correspondent try to win favor by inserting in his stories “puffs” of persons to whom he feels indebted for information. The writer who seeks to use the columns of a newspaper for personal ends is unfaithful to the trust reposed in him as the newspaper’s agent. Newspapers are in the business of buying and selling news. They want the facts that are news—and the facts only.