The news items have five broad elements—proximity, timeliness, prominence, consequence and human interest. Any event that takes place in the proximity of the reader will arouse more interest.
For example a train accident abroad will have lesser impact than a local bomb blast. Ideally a news item is that event which occurred in the last 24 hours of the latest edition. For television the hottest story is one which took place after the last bulletin.
However, it also depends upon the importance of the story. Nevertheless, if an event is discovered now but had happened month ago would still be front-paged. News items carrying the names of the well known people will carry more weight than the one which is nameless and faceless.
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If news directly affects or influences the reader, he will grab it immediately. Like the price rise or the weather report of his city. There is a fifth dimension to all borders and frontiers. For example a female attendant killing the child in her charge in the US made instant headlines and was discussed the world over.
Apart from the above mentioned five elements there are other yardsticks that could come handy while selecting stories for editing. The first and foremost is the number of readers who would be interested in a story.
For example a crime or sex-related story would generate maximum interest in any part of the world. In the Indian context politics is a hot subject and will always consume maximum space in a newspaper. However, of late fashion, lifestyle, health and career have found more space than before in most of the newspaper.