Terminology/ Glossary - Print Media

General terms used in Print Media:

1. ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulation) – Source of authoritative figures for newspaper’s net sale over specified periods
2. Ad - Advertisements
3. Advertising - The activity or profession producing information for promoting the sale of a product or service.
4. Advertorial – An advertisement section in a periodical that looks like an article or a feature.
5. Advocacy journalism - A type of journalism in which journalists openly and intentionally takes sides on issues and expresses their opinions in reporting.
6. Alignment – Placement of text relative to the margin.
7. Angle – Aspects or point of approach in a news story.
8. Banner – A large headline that stretches across the top of the page of a newspaper
9. Beat - A specialist area of journalism that a reporter regularly covers, such as police or health. See also round.
10. Blurb – Brief information about the writer.
11. Bridge – Proof reader’s mark showing that word or characters are to be joined together.
12. Bucket – Rules below and on both sides of type matter.
13. By-line – The writer’s name, printed at the beginning or end of an article.
14. Caption - Short pieces of text placed below or beside pictures to describe them and identify the photographers and/or owners, also called a cutline.
15. Circulation - Number of copies sold by newspapers and magazines.
16. Classified Ads – small newspaper advertisements usually paid for by individuals or small businesses and grouped under different classifications.
17. Colour - Extra details in a story which help the reader or listener get a fuller picture of what has happened or what a person is like.
18. Column - A regular feature often on a specific topic, written by a person known as a columnist.
19. Contacts book - A book which lists people a journalist knows may be useful, together with their telephone numbers, email addresses, fax numbers, addresses, or whatever other information is needed to contact them.
20. Copyright - The legal right to control the use of a literary, musical, dramatic or artistic work, more specifically by making or using copies of that work.
21. Copy taster - A senior sub-editor who looks at incoming copy and decides what will be used.
22. Cover line (or cover line) –It is a caption on a magazine cover.
23. Cover story - The most important story featured on the front cover of a magazine, often by an illustration.
24. Credit line –It is the text next to or following a story or picture acknowledging its source.
25. Crop –It means to cut unwanted portions from a photograph for publication.
26. Cub - Old-fashioned term for a trainee journalist, also known as a rookie.
27. Daily – A morning newspaper.
28. Dateline – Place and date of origin of newspaper story.
29. Deadline - The time the editor or producer sets by which the reporter must submit a finished story.
30. Deck – The number of rows in a headline.
31. Draft - The first version of a story before submission to an editor.
32. Double column – Across two columns; measure is not simply twice single – column, but also includes the space between columns.
33. Dummy – Mock-up of newspaper for design experiments and rearrangements.
34. Ears / Ear panel - 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.
35. Edition - A newspaper or magazine printed in a single run of the presses. It may be changed for different purposes, e.g. country edition, city edition, final edition etc.
36. Editorial page – A page where the newspaper or magazine’s editorial is printed, also called opinion page.
37. Exclusive – A story printed by only one paper; a scoop
38. Filler – Short item used to fill out a column.
39. Flag – Title plate on the first page of a newspaper.
40. Folio – Page or page number.
41. Follow – up – A story which is written to report new or more detailed information on a story which has already been published.
42. Font - A set of characters - letters, numbers and punctuation marks - of a single size and style of a particular typeface.
43. Format – The size and shape of a page, newspaper or book.
44. Fourth Estate – The press positioning it as a fourth branch of democracy.
45. Ghost writer – Ghost writer is the author of stories that bear someone else’s name.
46. Gutter - A vertical margin of white space where two pages or columns meet.
47. Hammer – One or two word heading set flesh left over main heading of about half the size.
48. Hand-out – Copy supplied by speaker or publicity agent.
49. Hard Copy – Something printed on paper
50. Hard News – Immediate and factual accounts of important events or development.
51. Imprint – Name and address of the publisher.
52. In depth – A news story that is comprehensive, thorough and detailed.
53. Intro – introduction or an opening paragraph of a story.
54. Jargon – Any technical or bureaucratic words that would not be used in everyday language.
55. Jump – It means to continue a story from one page to another.
56. Kicker – Small headline usually underscored, placed above and to left of main headline, also called eyebrow, teaser, over line.
57. Logo Type – Nameplate for a newspaper.
58. Masthead – nameplate of the newspaper.
59. Morgue – Newspaper library.
60. News Hole – Total space in a newspaper after the advertisement have been placed.
61. Obit – obituary, biography of a person who has died.
62. Op-ed – page opposite the editorial page used for letters to the editor, articles by columnists etc.
63. Periodicals - A magazine or newspaper published at regular intervals
64. Photo credit – A photographer’s by-line
65. Plagiarism – passing off as one’s own the ideas and words of another.
66. Plate - A plate contains the image of several pages, in multiple of 4, and is installed on to the press.
67. Pre-date – An edition issued before it’s announced date of publication.
68. Release – A press note or a hand-out to ‘okay’ for publication.
69. Rewrite – It means to write a story again, rather than simply edit the copy.
70. Schedule – There is the time schedule, or sheet, listing deadlines for pages.
71. Scoop – A story or picture of some importance nobody else has; an exclusive.
72. Tabloid newspaper –It is a small, compact format newspaper, usually less than 43 cm (17 inches) long, Also used to describe a newspaper style that uses short, simply-written stories and headlines with lots of pictures to illustrate more sensational content. Compare with broadsheet.
73. Yellow Journalism - An old-fashioned US term for sensational journalism.