Planning our news posts
We plan for the audience:
- who is the audience, what is in it for them?
- we do not waste their time, remember we are battling for people’s attention
- which channels will best reach the audience?
- what tone of voice is best?
We create strong, short and clear:
- key messages
- calls to action
- draft quotes for spokespeople
We check copy against our objectives and ensure we cover who, what, where, when and how.
News post layout
We use a special layout when we write news stories for our Somerset Newsroom.
Here is what we do to make sure the news posts are easy to read and find:
- Titles are short and clear.
- We add a one-sentence summary to explain what the post is about.
- We use important words (called keywords), so people can find the post easily.
- We follow our writing style, so everything sounds the same.
- If we use short forms (like BBC), we explain what they mean.
- We choose categories to group similar posts together.
- We add the right tag, so the post shows up in the right place. We can pick more than one but no more than three.
- If we use pictures, they must be clear, the right size, and have a short description (called Alt text) to help people who use screen readers. Pictures go at the top, not in the middle of the writing.
- We use the quote tool to show when someone is speaking, so we don’t need to use speech marks.
- We don’t use long website links. Instead, we link words in the writing and say where the link goes. We don’t use “click here” or “read more” because that doesn’t help people using screen readers.
- If we add a document, we use the download tool, so people know it’s a file and not a website.
- If we add a video, we use the media tool so it plays properly and is easy to use.
Structure copy with the inverted pyramid
By following the inverted pyramid we put the most important and interesting information first. This is the ‘who, what, when, where and why’. Follow this with supporting details and then background information.
The inverted pyramid
- the headline: we make it strong and interesting to hook reader interest, it can be easier to write this last.
- the lead: most newsworthy content and hook to draw people in, who what, where, when, why
- the body: important details or explanation, evidence and quotes
- the tail: necessary additional information, background details, link to more information
Latest News section
We have a Latest News section on the homepage of our website. This shows the most recently updated news stories and gives a quick look at what is new in the Newsroom.
If you want to see all the news stories, you can click the ‘Find more news and events’ button. This will take you to the Newsroom where everything is listed.
Each news story shows:
- When it was last updated
- Who wrote it
- What topics it’s about (called categories)
Here is an example of a news story you might see: A million reasons to recycle your food waste