Citations:lede

English citations of lede

1. (chiefly US, journalism) The introductory paragraph or paragraphs of a newspaper, or a news or other type of article; the lead or lead-in. [from mid 20th c.]
   • 1959, Phillip H. Ault & Edwin Emery, Reporting the News (Dodd, Mead), p. 38

     "A “lead” (sometimes spelled “lede”) is simply the opening of a story."

   • 1969, Roland Edgar Wolseley, Understanding Magazines (Iowa State Univ. Press), p. 442

     "lead: (noun; often spelled “lede”; lèd) The first paragraph or introductory section of an article."

   • 1979, J. W. Click, Russell N. Baird, Magazine Editing and Production, 2nd edition, Dubuque, Iowa: W[illiam] C. Brown, →ISBN, page 90:

     Readers usually see the lead picture and read its caption first, before reading the lede of the article, so the article lede should not be a repetition of the caption.

   • 1982, Louis Alexander, Beyond the Facts: A Guide to the Art of Feature Writing →ISBN, p. 14

     "Note that the first paragraph is not a news lede (spelled that way, as is customary in many editorial rooms, to distinguish it from the lead which printers use in typesetting)."

   • 1999, Mike Godwin, “Who’s a Journalist?—II: Welcome the New Journalists on the Internet”, in Robert H. Giles, Robert W. Snyder, editors, What’s Next?: Problems & Prospects of Journalism, New Brunswick, N.J., London: Transaction Publishers, published 2001, →ISBN, page 46:

     "How can Mr. On-line Guy learn to be a journalist if he didn't go through what I went through?" they [newspaper journalists] ask. "I needed the city editor to tell me how to write a graceful sentence, and I was a year into the job before I could craft a decent lede?"

   • 2006, Mike Nizza, The Lede, New York Times blog [1].

     "In the news business, the opening sentences of a story are referred to as its ‘lede’—spelled that way, journalism lore has it, to avoid confusion with the lead typesetting that once dominated newspaper printing presses."

   • 2006, Steve Peha, Margot Carmichael Lester, Be a Writer: Your Guide to the Writing Life!, page 125

     The lede is your beginning: the first sentence or paragraph that gets the reader engaged.

   • 2007 February, Brian McGrory, chapter 40, in Strangled, New York, N.Y.: Atria Books, →ISBN, page 314:

     I was thrilled to be in possession of this nugget, which could probably take over the lede of my story. This essentially and truly implicated one of the most respected homicide detectives in Boston, all based on my initial tip.