What Are the Different Parts of a Newspaper Article?

Parts of a newspaper article include the headline or title, byline, lead and story. Before writing these individual parts, the author should conduct adequate research and find reliable sources to authenticate facts included in the story.

The article begins with the title or headline, which should be a relatively short yet catchy and engaging phrase or sentence. Most headlines follow Associated Press style, which means that the first word is capitalized in the sequence, but the other words are not.

Next in the article is the byline, which is simply the name of the writer. Following this is the lead, sometimes spelled as “lede.” The lead is a partial summary of the rest of the story and should be roughly one paragraph long. It should be long enough to gain the reader’s attention, but it should not give so much information away that the reader stops reading after the first paragraph. Often, the lead contains a hook to gain the interest of the reader.

The story is the last part of a newspaper article. It contains all of the relevant information of the piece. The story should read in chronological order and be straight to the point. Sources are not typically provided in a newspaper article.