The Inverted Pyramid of Journalism

The Inverted Pyramid journalistic writing is the most basic fundamentals of journalism. Writing in the Inverted Pyramid style has so many benefits for your readers. Journalists are taught to write news stories using this inverted pyramid structure.  This style calls for a very direct approach. 

The beginning with the most important, followed by less important, and then finally ending with the least important.

1.     The beginning  or The lead, The introductory paragraph should contain the key information you wish to share, answering the five Ws (who, what, where, when and why).

 It should ideally answer these essential questions. In here putting the essential in a few sentences and most attention-grabbing elements first, thus write a brief summary or overview of our article.  Include your most important keywords in the summary and put it at the beginning of your article.  This allows users to quickly assess what your article is about, and helps search engines to identify your most important keywords.

 1.     The second layer of the pyramid is the body of the story and should contain, any additional information to support the introduction, expanding on the information provided.

 y- Sequence of events, quotes, evidences, arguments, the central issue, key details etc.

The third layer is referred to as the tail, The least important information is put in the tail part. It should contain the least important information such as other background information, trivial details and so on. This can also, in some circumstances, include the assessment of the journalist.

Journalism historian David T. Z. Mindich argues that one of the first inverted pyramid leads was written by an Associated Press reporter after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in April 1865.

“The inverted pyramid organizes stories not around ideas or chronologies but around facts,” says journalism historian Mitchell Stephens in “A History of News.” 

It’s also an extremely useful tool for thinking and organizing because it forces the reporter to sum up the point of the story in a single paragraph.

Critics of the inverted pyramid say it’s outdated, unnatural, boring, artless, and a factor in the declining readership that newspapers have been grappling with for decades.