A

Advertisement: Printed notice of something for sale paid for by the advertiser.
Agate: Small type (usually 5.5 point) used for sports statistics, stock tables, classified ads, etc.
Angle: The approach or perspective from which a news fact or event is viewed, or the emphasis chosen for a story.
Art: Any photo, map graph or illustration.
Assignment: A story a reporter is given to cover.
AP Stylebook: The standard reference source for reporters and editors on word usage, libel, numbers, titles, capitalization and commonly used words and phrases.

B

Banner: A headline stretching across the top of a page.
Beat: A reporter's regular assignment, for covering news like sports or music.
Bleed: An illustration filling one or more margins and running off the edge of the page or border; used frequently in magazines and advertisements.
Body Copy: The main part of a story.
Body Type: Type used in stories, not in headlines; generally under 12-point size; opposite of display type.
Box: Refers to type that is framed in a border to give it prominence.
Break: Initial news coverage of an event.
Budget: The lineup of news stories scheduled for the next day's newspaper.
Bumped Heads: Similar headlines running side by side that create monotony and the tendency to read across.
Byline: The author's name, which is printed at the beginning of an article.

C

Camera-ready: Refers to anything that is in its finished form - no further changes are needed before it is published in the paper.
Caption: Headline or text accompanying a picture or illustration; also called a cutline.
Circulation: The total number of copies of a publication distributed to subscribers and vendors in one day.
Clip Art: A variety of art provided to newspapers on a subscription basis, for use in ads.
Column: The arrangement of horizontal lines of type, usually 10 to 14 picas wide, in a news story; also, an article appearing regularly written by a particular writer or "columnist."
Columnist: A person who writes a regular column giving a personal opinion.
Copy: All material for publication, whether written stories or pictures.
Copy Editor: The person who corrects or edits copy written by a reporter and writes headlines.
Copyediting: Correcting, improving and marking copy to be printed.
Cover: To gather information and get facts for a story.
Credit Line: A byline that accompanies a photograph, illustration, video, or other media that credits the creator. The name of the person or organization responsible for making or distributing the media usually appears in small type underneath. Also called credit line.

D

Dateline: The line at the beginning of a story giving the place and date of the articles origination.
Deadline: A time at which all copy for an edition must be submitted.
Deck: A "bank" or section of a headline. Also called a “dek” or a “drophed”
Dummy: A preliminary layout of a newspaper page, showing the placement of stories, headlines, pictures and advertisements.

E

Ears: Space at the top of the front page on each side of the newspaper's name where ads, weather news, index to pages or announcement of special features appears.
Edition: The issue for one press run: home edition, state edition, final home edition, extra.
Editor: A person who directs the editorial policies; or a person who decides what news will go in the paper and where it will appear.
Editorial: An article expressing the opinion of the newspaper regarding a certain subject.
Em: Unit of measuring column widths. An em (for the letter M) is a square of any given size of type, and is most frequently used as the unit in measuring "pica" (the width of an em in 12-point type).
En: Half of an em.
Exclusive: A story printed by only one paper; a scoop.

F

Face: The style of type.
Feature: A story in which the interest lies in some factor other than the news value, usually to entertain.
Filler: Short informational stories or advertisements, usually timeless, used to fill small spaces where needed.
Flag: The printed title (i.e., name and logo) of a newspaper at the top of the front page.
Folio: Newspaper name, date and page number that appear at the top of each page.

G

General Assignment: A reporter who covers a variety of stories rather than a single "beat."
Gutter: The space between columns or margins between facing pages.

H

Hard News: Factual news stories without opinion.
Headline: The title of an article. Also called a “hed”
Human Interest: Emotional appeal in the news. A "human interest" story, as compared with a "straight news" story, bases its appeal more on the unusual than on consequence.

I

Inserts: An advertisement or magazine that is printed separately and inserted into the folded newspaper.
Inverted Pyramid: The standard news story structure in which facts are arranged in descending order of importance.
Issue: All the copies which a newspaper publishes in one day.

J

Jump: To continue a story from one page to another.
Jumplines: The continuation instructions of a story that is jumped to another page.

K

Kicker: Small headline, often in italics and usually underlined, above and slightly to the left of the main head.
Kill: To eliminate all or part of a story (or if referring to art, eliminating an illustration).
Kill Fee: A negotiated payment on a magazine or newspaper article that is given to the freelancer if their assigned article is "killed" or cancelled.
Kerning: The adjustment of spacing between (letters or characters) in a piece of text to be printed.

L

Layout: (1) A sketch or drawing that indicates the arrangement of pictures and copy on a printed page. Used synonymously with "dummy." (2) A combination of stories, pictures, etc., about a single subject.
Leading: The space between lines of type.
Lede: The introductory section of a news story that is intended to entice the reader to read the full story.

M

Managing Editor: The editor who directs the daily gathering, writing and editing of news and the placement of news in the paper; working for him or her are the city editor, the copy editor, etc.
Masthead: Details of the publisher, place of publication, editorial staff and information about the newspaper, generally placed on the editorial page.
Morgue: Where old newspapers, clippings, cuts and pictures are stored.

N

Newsprint: A grade of paper made from recycled paper and wood pulp, used for printing newspapers.

O

Off The Record: Information not for publication, or at least not attributed to the source if used as background.
Op-ed: Page opposite the editorial page used for letters to the editor, articles by columnists, etc.
Overline: A small headline that runs above a photo; usually used with stand-alone art.

P

Pad: To make a story longer by using more words than are necessary.
Photo Credit: A photographer's byline. The name of the person or organization responsible for making or distributing a photograph, usually appearing small type under the reproduced picture. Also called credit line.
Pica: Unit of linear measurement commonly used in print design that is equal to 1/6 of an inch (i.e., six picas = one inch.).
Plagiarism: Passing off as one's own the ideas and words of another.
Plate: A plate contains the image of several pages, in multiples of 4, and is installed onto the press.
Pre-date: An edition issued before its announced date of publication.
Press: Machine that prints the newspaper.
Press Run: Total number of copies printed.
Proof: A page on which newly set copy is reproduced to make possible the correction of errors.

Q

Q and A: Copy in question and answer form, as in verbatim reports of court proceeding.
Quotes: (1) Quotation marks; (2) A quote is a portion of a story that consists of direct quotations.

R

Rail: The common name for the right-side column of a web page. On a rail is usually where sponsored listings appear.
Railroad: To rush copy through to the paper without careful editing.
Register: Correct placement of plates to ensure ink is properly aligned. When a printed image appears fuzzy, it is referred to as being “out of register”.
Rough: A preliminary layout not in finished form.

S

Scoop: A story obtained before other newspapers or other media receive the information.
Series: A group of related stories generally run on successive days or weeks.
Sidebar: A secondary news story that supports or amplifies a major story.
Single Copy: Sales of newspapers from a newsstand or rack; Papers sold one at a time.
Source: The supplier of information, such as a person, book, survey, etc.
Straight News: A plain account of news facts written in standard style and structure.
Subhead: Small, one-line headline inserted in the body of a story to break up the monotony of a solid column of small type.

T

Tabloid: A newspaper of small page size, usually 11 inches wide and 17 inches deep.
Thumbnail: A half-column picture.
Typo: A mechanical error in typing a story.

U

V

W

Web Press: Machine used to print the newspaper. Paper is woven through the press to facilitate printing.
Widow: A single word or short line of type at the end of a paragraph, particularly at the top or bottom of a column or page.

X

Y

Yellow Journalism: Sensational journalism.