The Summary Lead

Imagine you had just run the marathon and you were asked to explain your company's plans to open a new plant to make a new product. Knowing you had the breath for maybe fifty words, you'd make sure every syllable counted. That's the task the writer faces when drafting the first paragraph—the lead—of a news release. If the editor, and by extension the target audience member, isn't clear about what the story involves and why it is important after the first paragraph, the subse­quent paragraphs will never be read.

(You must realize, too, that even though you send out a three-page news release, the editor may deem the story worth only a single para­graph in a "round-up" of similar news items. That single paragraph that makes it into print will be your lead. So, you have to write the lead with the objective of making it a story that can stand alone.)