Breaking News: The Writethru

At Patch, winning on a breaking news story means putting up what you know as soon as possible — even if that's just one sentence. Then you add information as you go, revising along the way. This is essential for beating other news media to primacy on search, as well as email and social media.

A writethru is the process of building out a breaking news story beyond your initial one-sentence breaking news alert. While writethrus can happen in a few different ways, the goal remains the same: Use strong SEO terms in first and subsequent headlines. Assume everyone will be reading the story for the first time. This means whenever possible, keep the biggest news on top, even as you add material.

Our lead national writer explains how it's done.

Host: Megan VerHelst, national desk writer

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