On a daily basis, most of us are fond of reading newspapers and magazines. With the varied audience for newspapers and magazines, it is only natural for them to have different writing styles, hence the need to explore their diversities. There are some fundamental differences between the two kinds of writing, and if you’re like me and think you can do both, there are a few things you should know.
What’s in a Newspaper?
Newspaper articles consist of timely reportage of events as they unfold, therefore the writing follows a chronological structure called the inverted pyramid. The most important news element comes first in the lead, while a subsequent paragraph continues with less important down to the least important. Therefore it is arranged from ascending to descending order. The news writer ensures that when writing, the following questions must be answered:
Who?
What?
When?
Where?
Why?
How? …of the event. The 5Ws and H is essential in writing news stories.
Abbreviations are not used in newspaper writing. An example is: Taiwo and Sons Limited has reviewed the KPIs of its employees.
Not everyone knows the full meaning of KPI to be Key Performance Indicators, thus it could discourage your readers. The readers should understand what they read and not feel excluded.
When writing on an incident that involves the death of ten persons in an accident, out of the ten, one is a prominent personality in the country and the remaining nine are general persons, the writer picks the angle of the story from the point of prominence while the others are mentioned afterwards.
Except a writer is quoting the source of some information, the use of “I” and “me” is not used. Newspaper writing strives for objectivity rather than opinions. Newspapers also deal with breaking news, so writers do not have the luxury of time to do in-depth research.
Unlike newspaper writing that follows the inverted pyramid structure, magazine writing has no specific structure instead what is important is that you should have your introduction, body and conclusion. From the beginning of the article to the end, creativity is important to attract and hold the attention of the readers.
Shall I Compare Newspapers to Magazines?
In magazine writing, the angle from which the writer pens down the topic is very pertinent. For instance, if a topic on bedwetting has been chosen, the writer picks an angle that has not been explored to grab the attention of the readers.
The language of the readers is being used in magazine writing, unlike the newspaper which doesn’t afford writers such an opportunity.
Newspapers are also published for a daily audience and so the writing has to be done rapidly. A magazine on the other hand gets to the newsstand or their different locations every week/fortnight/month and as agreed by the distributor. Since it is usually not as current as the newspaper, it gives the writer the luxury to write longer.
To sum up…
It is fairly easy to break into these careers. Both newspapers and magazines provide an unparalleled education in the business of writing. So take a lesson from both styles of writing and start doing it right today.
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