Genesis of a News Story

How and why some stories get published

Photo by Roman Kraft

I suspect that it can be a bit mystifying for the general public to understand how a story that they’ve come to read in the paper has actually made it there. Some people will boldly claim that most stories are “planted” and that journalists get their “marching orders” from their overlords—the ones with financial interests in the publications. Or, even, the government.

Now, there’s some grains of truth to that, as certainly whoever owns the publication or pays the bills via purchasing advertising can have a say in the editorial content, but I think it might help if readers could better understand the process by which a story appears in a publication.

So, here goes:

Story Assignments