Then again, what exactly is news? Is it a happening or event that is new? Many new things happen every day but never make the newspapers. Is it an event, incident or quote that is new AND has a direct bearing on the constituency where it occurred or was said?

What is news in the US is trash in Bhutan, and vice-versa. How many borders must events or opinions cross before local news become regional news, and then national news and even global news?

Scholars of journalism have argued long and hard over the definition of news. Indeed, it is a topic of intense discussion. 

Thankfully, the forum for this topic is in academia and not in newsrooms, though editors are quite often besieged by staff and public as to what kind of news should be given more prominence.

Certainly, you won't find me delving into this subject. Like you, I have an instinctive knowledge of what makes the news (though past colleagues may argue this) and don't really try to define what it is.

Suffice to say, news is something that is "new". A hard news article tells readers the impact of something that happened or what somebody said just this minute, one hour ago, this morning, yesterday.

Quite often, news is something that happened a long time ago, maybe days or weeks. It's just that the public didn't know about it. But it still counts as "news" because as far as the ignorant public (and journalist) is concerned, it's news to them.

Generally speaking, however, once it goes past yesterday, it tends not to be news anymore. Some may argue that with the advent of the Internet, even "yesterday" is old news. But in places where newspapers are still the prime source of news, and there are still many such places, "yesterday" is still within the strike zone.

A hard news story doesn't mess around with words.

Check this out. 

-- New York's subways and buses were brought to a halt on Tuesday by the city's first mass transit strike in 25 years by a union that faces a $1 million-a-day fine for every day of the work stoppage --

This no-nonsense, get the facts out of the way intro from Reuters above provides readers with a vivid picture of what is happening to the city of New York, who is making it an issue and what the consequences are for all parties. All in one tidy paragraph.

This "intro" holds close to the formula Reuters journalists, indeed all journalists for that matter, are ingrained with. You can learn to write like this too. “Great copy, every time, on time – secrets to how top pros write news, in 6 easy steps”, my ebook that’s selling on this site will get you writing close to that within days.

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