FNMA News Editorial Standards
When you submit your stories, the Regional Editorial Coordinator will be assessing your story against a set of Editorial Standards, and will comment back to you whether you have achieved them or not.
These Standards are as follows:
1. The news item should be relevant to both local and other regional audiences.
Check that your story has relevance. Ask the question: why would other people find your story interesting? Just because it’s of local relevance doesn’t mean that people in other regions will find it interesting.
On the other hand, many local stories are interesting because they may be unique, or perhaps similar to what people in other areas area experiencing.
Relevance also means that the story is concerning people and events just past. In other words, the story is timely – it has just happened, or if it happened some time ago, it can be related to a current event.
Relevance is a test of its newsworthiness: timing (current), significance, proximity, prominence and human interest.
2. The technical quality of news items should be professional.
We want the best quality news possible. This applies to technical quality – no sound distortion or blurred video or photos – and content quality.
- Audio: Specialised equipment needs to be used both recording and editing. If using a computer (Zoom) or iPhone, you will need to use high quality external microphones.
- Video: Again, specialised professional equipment will need to be used, although using a computer (Zoom) and an iPhone is acceptable so long as you also use high quality external microphones and a tripod.
3. The news item must be factually correct.
Your story must be accurate. Facts are important in news stories. Therefore always check the facts are correct by double checking and confirming what you have written or recorded is accurate. This applies specially to names, positions, locations, dates and times.
4. The news items should be concise.
Try to tell the story as briefly as you can. Keep editing the story until it’s the minimum length without losing the important parts of the story.
Length of news items:
- Text: no more than 150 characters for social media and 350 words online including at least one photograph or graphic, with a suitable headline.
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Photographs: at least 5 high quality photos with captions for each photo explaining who, what, where, when and why, with a suitable headline.
- Audio: between 30secs and 45secs for news; current affairs 4 – 5 minutes. The audio grabs should always be introduced by a brief text introduction (for the news presenter) no longer than 50 words.
- Video: no more than 1.5 minutes (90 secs). The video grab should always be introduced by a brief text introduction (for the news presenter) no longer than 50 words. Video current affairs: 4 – 5 minutes.
5. The news item should be clear.
This means writing in simple English, avoiding jargon and cliches, using short sentences and active voice.
6. The news items must not contain content that is defamatory.
It’s important not to defame anyone in your news story. Basically you cannot write about someone that will lower their reputation in the eyes of the community, unless you can prove that your information is correct.
7. The news items should contain at least one quote or grab from a person related to the news item.
From an interest point of view, it’s necessary to hear the opinion or voice of a person connected to the news. They may be a central player, or another person commenting on the content of the news item. We are not interested in your opinion: your job as a Reporter is to seek the opinions, perspectives, views and stories of others.
