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The “nut graph” — a critical, explanatory element of many big news stories

August 28, 2015 by jimmycsays

Those of you who have been following the blog for a while have heard me rave quite frequently about the quality of The New York Times.

The paper has the best news-gathering team in the world, the best editors and the best business, sports, style, features and science sections. In other words, the best in all areas.

Partly because it has deep pockets, The Times has been able to throw a lot of money at the transition from print to digital and has been much more successful at that than most newspapers. Earlier this month, for example, it passed the 1 million mark in digital subscriptions, just four and a half years after establishing a pay wall.

If the Sulzberger family ever decides to sell the paper (the company’s stock is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange but the family controls a voting majority), it will be a gray day for journalism — and for me personally…If it does sell, I hope it’s after I’ve left this mortal coil.

Today, I want to show you just one reason why The Times stands above other newspapers.

It’s because of the quality of what people in the news business call the “nut graph.”

The nut graph is a sentence or a paragraph — occasionally two paragraphs — high in a story that tell the reader why the story is important and where it fits in the context of a broader trend or sequence of developments.

The nut graph takes a specific situation and lifts it into a broader perspective that, ideally, moves the reader toward an understanding of why a particular story is meaningful. The nut graph often prods readers to keep reading, even when they’re inclined to turn the page.

Done well, the nut graph is a soft siren song that pulls the readers in farther, ever deeper, until they’re in too deep to turn back.

Let me give you a few recent examples of outstanding New York Times nut graphs.

One of yesterday’s front-page stories, of course, was Vester Lee Flanagan’s killing of TV reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward while the news team was on the air, interviewing a Roanoke, VA, Chamber of Commerce official. Then, before taking his own life, Flanagan posted on Facebook a video of the slayings he had recorded with a body camera.

One commenter wrote on this blog Wednesday, shortly after news of the shooting came out, “My head is spinning.” I think those words aptly described the reaction a lot of us had.

In a single sentence, before the story “jumped” to an inside page, The Times captured the essence of the story and its broader implications with this riveting line: “The shooting and the horrifying images it produced marked a new chapter in the intersection of video, violence and social media.”

If you were under the impression before reading that sentence that this was just another wacky shooting, that sentence should have brought you to a screeching, temporary halt.

Today, The Times, followed up the big, breaking story with a fascinating story about the challenge employers face when dealing with difficult, sometimes seemingly dangerous employees like Flanagan.

One of the two by-lined reporters, Erick Eckholm or Richard A. Oppel Jr., wrote this nut graph:

“It is a nightmare for any employer: what to do with a volatile, constantly aggrieved worker who has had angry, even frightening confrontations with fellow workers — yet has committed no crime.”

How can you resist reading more? For one thing, nearly all of us have worked with one or more people who seem off kilter and give us the creeps. And most managers have had to deal with such people.

One more example…

On Friday, Aug. 14, the lead article in The Times was a truly shocking story about male members of the Islamic State raping women and girls who practiced another religion and did not adhere to the Quran. The story began with an anecdote about an ISIS male prostrating himself in prayer immediately before and after raping a 12-year-old girl. In an incredible perversion of moral reasoning — not to mention common sense — the assailant told her that by raping her he was drawing himself closer to God.

Here’s the nut graph:

The systematic rape of women and girls from the Yazidi religious minority has become deeply enmeshed in the organization and the radical theology of the Islamic State in the year since the group announced it was reviving slavery as an institution. Interviews with 21 women and girls who recently escaped the Islamic State, as well as an examination of the group’s official communications, illuminate how the practice has been enshrined in the group’s core tenets.”

Having set the hook, reporter/writer Rukmini Callimachi returned to the stories of individual women who had been raped and where and how this abhorrent abuse got started.

…So, next time you pick up a New York Time or the next time you go to NYT.com, check out a major story and look for the nut graph. Chances are you won’t have to look too far; it should jump out at you.

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Posted in Uncategorized | 12 Comments

12 Responses

  1. on August 29, 2015 at 12:07 am kaler

    “I hope it’s after I leave this mortal coil” Wow !


    • on August 29, 2015 at 7:54 am jimmycsays

      Ain’t no wow about it…It comes naturally, most of the time.


  2. on August 29, 2015 at 8:09 am Laura Hockaday

    Jim
    Michael (O.J.) Nelson, your friend and colleague at The Kansas City Star, always was a nut on the nut graph. It was good advice, although he drove some of us nuts sometimes. Hope he is doing well. I heard he retired from the paper in Lincoln, Neb.
    All best,
    Laura


    • on August 29, 2015 at 8:12 am jimmycsays

      He drove all of us nuts. Good-hearted guy but hundreds of journalists are glad he’s retired. No exaggeration.


  3. on August 29, 2015 at 9:16 am Laura Hockaday

    Jim:
    Am glad I’m not the only one. O.J. had a great sense of humor away from work.
    Thanks for your honest reply. I do hope he and Christie are O.K.
    All best,
    Laura


    • on August 29, 2015 at 9:24 am jimmycsays

      I think Christie is doing very well, Laura. She occasionally comes to KC for doctors’ appts. and stays with Ginzy Schaefer, who you’ll remember and who lives in my neighborhood association.


  4. on August 29, 2015 at 9:18 am jreddi01

    Good read, Jimmy. How about an article about headlines that are sensational or tantalizing or that use “nuts” to get our attention. :)


    • on August 29, 2015 at 9:44 am jimmycsays

      Thanks, jredd…

      Let’s compare The Times’ headline on the Roanoke shootings with that of The Daily News, a New York tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch.

      The Times: Ex-Broadcaster Kills Two on the Air in Virginia

      The Daily News: Executed on Live TV

      They both say the same thing but in starkly different tones. The Times’ headline is straightforward but reflects the shock and unusual circumstances. The Daily News, on the other hand, uses words intended to electrify and inflame. The editors might as well have added three exclamation points.

      In addition, The Daily News published three still shots from Flanagan’s video, showing Flanagan pointing his gun at Alison Parker and then opening fire.

      The Times used no stills from Flanagan’s video, nor did CNN. NBC used stills from the video, and CBS played 23 seconds of the video, stopping it right before he began shooting.

      As far as I’m concerned, using any Flanagan’s video in any form was irresponsible. Doing so played into Flanagan’s design of sucking the world into his demented and lurid spectacle.


  5. on August 29, 2015 at 3:10 pm Laura

    Jim:
    Thanks so much for the news about Christie. I run into Ginzy every once and awhile.
    Miriam Pepper gave a very fine tribute to Bob Sigman at his memorial service this morning. His daughter, Anne, also spoke about her dad, from the heart.
    Several loyal former Star staffers were there.
    All best,
    Laura


    • on August 29, 2015 at 3:53 pm jimmycsays

      Thanks for that report, Laura.


  6. on August 31, 2015 at 6:14 pm Thomas R Shrout Jr

    Jim, you taught me something and I thought I knew a lot about Journalism. Thank you.


    • on August 31, 2015 at 10:19 pm jimmycsays

      Tom, you know more about journalism than 99.9 percent of the uninitiated! (But I’m thrilled I could bring you up to speed on a dimension you hadn’t heard discussed previously.)



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