News Writing Essentials: What Makes News and Writing Skills

Who, What, Where, When, Why – and How. Learn how to spot a news story and report it in a coherent and logical way

This four-hour news reporting course equips you to tackle news stories confidently so you nail the intro and include all the important information.

What you’ll learn: How news works and key writing skills

What makes a story news? How do reporters decide what to cover and where do they find stories? What determines which stories lead the news agenda or go viral? With insights from reporters and editors who are making the news, you’ll learn how journalists think and reveal the secrets of their decision making – helping you develop your own “nose for news”.

We’ll spend time considering the key principles and golden rules of news stories so you have a strong grasp of the fundamentals or can refresh your skills. We’ll walk you through the fundamentals of news writing – from the 5Ws and beyond – so that you’ll hone your ability to write engaging news stories and craft attention-grabbing introductions.

How you’ll learn

This two-module course will be led by an excellent trainer who will share their practical expertise through presentations, discussion and practical exercises – ensuring you have opportunity to reinforce your learning and test your understanding. You’ll receive feedback on your work from an experienced editor.

Who the course is for

This news reporting course is for you if you want to hone your news sense, refresh or build your practical news skills. You can follow it up with our News Writing Advanced course and we also offer a full-day version, News Writing Fundamentals: Write Stories with Impact.

BOOK FOR YOUR TEAM: The course will be tailored to your needs and can be delivered remotely or in your offices. Get in touch using the button below to discuss times and dates for bespoke training.

Course Modules

What Makes News

  1. What makes a news story
  2. News sources and demographics
  3. ‘Hard’ and ‘soft’ news
  4. Recognising fact and opinion
  5. Knowing your audience

News Writing Basics

  1. Story structure and the 5Ws
  2. Writing a good introduction
  3. Building out the body of the story
  4. How and where to use quotes
  5. Language usage in news
news reporting course: stack of newspapers

News Writing Essentials: What Makes News and Writing Skills

Who, What, Where, When, Why – and How. Learn how to spot a news story and report it in a coherent and logical way

Get in touch

What our students say

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What a great session we had on Communicating with Impact. Bridgid shared practical techniques to enhance and develop our communications skills so we can present and speak publicly or to senior stakeholders with confidence and impact.  I speak for my whole team in highly recommending Bridgid Nzekwu if you are after effective and fun communication training.

Vodafone
, Group Legal Director, Corporate Commercial & Compliance

The team is flexible, slick, well-resourced and overall simply first class. Their expertise and knowledge have been invaluable. I was delighted with our choice, so I’d have no hesitation in recommending them

Prostate Cancer UK
, Head of External Relations

PA Media Training were efficient, well organised and genuinely lovely people to deal with and, importantly for us, able to provide flexibility around our needs to create the bespoke training we required. I wouldn’t hesitate to use them for further training or to recommend them to other organisations.

Mayor of London’s Press Office
, Head of Media

The small class sizes nurture a comfortable environment where everyone supports and learns from each other. The staff helped me hone in on my writing skills and develop the confidence to feel comfortable on camera.

Camilla Foster
, Reporter
, Newsquest

Contact us

Do you wish to train on one of our specialist courses? Start by filling in the application form – we’ll ask you for some important information such as your education and employment history.

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Name*
By submitting this application form you confirm your acceptance that the information you have provided will be used during the recruitment procedure. Once the recruitment procedure is completed, the data will be stored for one year and then destroyed. If you are the successful candidate, relevant information may be taken from this form and used as part of your personnel record.
If you would like to receive regular updates from PA Media Academy, please tick here:

Contact us

For more information , simply fill out the form and a member of our team will be in touch.

"*" indicates required fields

Name*
By submitting this application form you confirm your acceptance that the information you have provided will be used during the recruitment procedure. Once the recruitment procedure is completed, the data will be stored for one year and then destroyed. If you are the successful candidate, relevant information may be taken from this form and used as part of your personnel record.
If you would like to receive regular updates from PA Media Academy, please tick here:

Contact us

For more information , simply fill out the form and a member of our team will be in touch.