A well-written news bulletin is essential for keeping listeners engaged. Radio and television audiences are busy, so bulletins must be concise and engaging to keep them listening.
A good lead story will decide whether listeners continue with a bulletin or not. It needs to be dramatic and interesting so that listeners will stay tuned in. The headlines should also be compelling and promote the kind of stories to come.
The order in which you tell your news will depend to some extent on the station format – a serious national broadcaster will favour more substantial stories delivered in a more deliberate manner, while a youth oriented music station may prefer a lighter and brighter style of bulletin with more stories about popular culture. It is still essential, however, to ensure that the overall structure of a bulletin provides a balance of stories, some heavy and some light.
Often it is possible to make a story more appealing for the audience by adding short sound bites, either inserted into a voice report or as stand-alone audio clips. These are called ‘grabs’ and they can make a story more interesting for listeners because it adds a human voice to the information, or gives a first-hand account from someone who was involved in an event.
It is vital to know your own (or the newsreader’s) reading rate so that you can estimate how long it will take to read a piece of text. Keeping a note of this will help you to write a tight and efficient news bulletin.