Parts of the Front Page of a Newspaper

CAMPUS JOURNALISM

Whatever the type of paper it is, the parts and sections are traditionally similar to one another. We have four major sections of a newspaper (most commonly of campus papers): front page; editorial page; sports page, and; special features. Each section is divided into parts.

PARTS OF THE FRONT PAGE

Local News: Local News is news that took place inside the country. (This must not be confused with provincial or regional news. Local News is concerned with what is happening in the Philippines, for example, as a whole while provincial or regional news usually give news concerning a more specific area.)

Foreign News: Foreign News is news that took place outside the country. (This must not be confused with Dateline News. Foreign News is that which concerns the global community or that which happened outside the Philippines, for example, but the information there in concerns the people in the Philippines – i.e. the release of iPhone 5 or the rocket launch from North Korea).

Dateline News: Dateline news is a news story which is usually out-of-town. This doesn’t necessarily need to be concerned with the reporting country but they are published for some informative and entertainment purposes. Dateline News is usually introduce by a dateline stating the country the place story was taken from, the date and the source of the material if it wasn't written originally by the newspaper staff (i.e. Tokyo, Japan, October 19 – Tokyo News…).

Weather News: Weather News is usually a boxed forecast/prediction from reliable sources (usually mentioned). Weather News includes the place where a specific weather activity is occurring, the temperature, wind directions, velocities, alerts, etc. Deeper news about the weather (i.e. storm signals and announcements, evacuation, relief operations, retrieval operations and search and rescue operation coverage and the like) are discussed as news stories.

Index: An Index is a slug line indicating an important inside page story and the page number where it can be found. Indices usually contain hottest issues and stories in a particular area, exclusive interviews, exclusive coverage and the like).

Other Thing Found in Front Pages:

i. Nameplate: The nameplate is the engraved or printed name or logo/symbol of the newspaper.

ii. Ears: Ears are little boxes in either or both sides of the nameplate. Ears usually contain advertisements or announcements.

iii. Banner (Head): The banner is the principal headline which is usually written in the boldest and biggest font. It is the title of the most important news of the day (for dailies). This most important news is called banner news.

iv. Running Head: The running head is a type of head having two or more lines.

v. Headline: Headline refers to any title of any news. Thus, the title of any news in any part of a newspaper is called headline.

vi. Deck: A deck is a subordinate headline or head which is immediately placed below its mother head to give more information about it.

vii. Lead: Lead refers to the beginning of a news story. This means that a lead could be a word, a phrase, a sentence or even a paragraph.

viii. News Story: The news story is the whole story or a part of the whole story about the news which is composed of the lead and the text supporting and elaborating the lead.

ix. Columns: Columns are columns in a newspaper. They are horizontal divisions of the parts or texts of a newspaper.

x. Column Rules: Column rules are vertical lines that indicate the divisions of the columns. In modern journalism, these lines are substituted with a space (a blank column rule). Space column rules or more formally known as sunken rules are usually one em wide.

xi. Fold: Folds are imaginary horizontal lines that divide the paper equally into two.

xii. Byline: A byline is the signature, name or pseudonym of the reporter who prepared the news. They can me seen in various forms: - Mark dela Peña; by Mark dela Peña; (Mark dela Peña), or; - Mad Pen.

xiii. Box: Any news material enclosed by line rules is a box. In this case, ears are special types of boxes because they are specially named because of their position.

xiv. Cut (Cliché): The cut is a metal plate bearing the newspaper’s illustration.

xv. Cutline: A cutline is the text accompanying photos or other art works. The cutline is commonly known as caption. If the text shows above the photo, it is called overline.

xvi. Overline: Overline is a type of cutline written or shown above the photo.

xvii. Kicker: A kicker is a tagline above but smaller than the headline. It gives stimulating but small details about the headline and this is why it is also called teaser.

xviii. Hammer: A hammer is a type of kicker but the difference is that a hammer is bigger than the headline.

xix. Credit Line: A credit line is a line given as a pay of respect to the source of the story or illustration printed. This is done usually for stories or illustrations imported or borrowed from other printed materials or people. The difference of a byline from a credit line is that a byline is usually a name, signature or pseudonym of the reporter within the newspaper staff but a credit line is used for those which are borrowed or imported. Thus, foreign news and dateline news often have credit lines.