The TV Story vs. The Inverted Pyramid

I've gotten used to using the inverted pyramid in print stories. I enjoy the amount of information that I can include in a news story. I feel comfortable knowing that when I go out to report a story for print, I can tell the entire story, and the publication can choose to use as much or as little of the story as they want.

Shook's notes indicate that the TV news story is told much differently. As a storyteller, the broadcast journalist only gives a few main points verbally, and the rest of the story is told through interviews or images. The other thing is that Shook says the TV story needs a good ending. "Without a strong close," he writes, "the package will stop but it will not end." This is a strong contrast to the print story, where an editor can decide where to stop a piece wherever he/she wants due to the inverted pyramid. Shook's helped me to understand that I must be very concise when writing a TV piece.