What is Newsworthy?

There is a list of five factors, which are considered when deciding if a story is newsworthy. When an editor needs to decide whether to run with a particular story, s/he will ask how well the story meets each of these criteria. Normally, a story should perform well in at least two areas.

1. Timing 
 The word news means exactly that the things which are new. Topics which are current are good news. Consumers are used to receiving the latest updates, and the old news is quickly discarded. 

 A story that contains just average interest needs to be told quickly if it is to be told at all (A story that contains average interest would not be at a priority for the editor). If an incident took place today, it's interesting, it's news. If the same thing happened last week, it's no longer interesting and so it would be discarded.

 

2. Significance 

The number of people affected by the story is important. A plane crash in which hundreds of people died is more significant than a crash killing a dozen. 

 The Significance of a news would be its affect measurement and its drastic nature. If a car crashes in a tree injuring two and a two buses on the highway crash into each other killing 20 people, the bus crash would be of more significance as it was a more serious incident and that news would of more importance.

 

3. Proximity  

Stories which happen near to us have more significance. The closer the story to home, the more newsworthy it is. For someone living in France, a major plane crash in the USA has a similar news value to a small plane crash near Paris. 

Its not that proximity doesn't have to mean geographical distance. Stories from countries with which we have a particular bond or similarity have the same effect. For example, Australians would be expected to relate more to a story from a distant Western nation than a story from a much closer Asian country.

 

4. Prominence

Famous people get more coverage just because they are famous. If you break your arm it won't make the news, but if the Queen of England breaks her arm it's big news.

The news of the people that are famous in any field would be of interest for the readers because the people have a certain admiration for the stars from any field and they feel connect to them. Seeing this connection the editor would prefer putting in news about
celebs.   

5. Human Interest

Human interest stories are a bit of a special case. They often disregard the main rules of newsworthiness; for example, they don't date as quickly, they need not affect a large number of people, and it may not matter where in the world the story takes place.

The Stories with human interest appeal to emotion. They aim to provoke responses such as amusement, thrill or sadness. Television news programs often place a humorous line or story at the end to finish of the show on a feel-good note where as in print media like Newspapers often have a dedicated area for interesting items.