Your audience’s interests are the key to a successful news bulletin. It must contain a mix of hard and soft news, but the most important thing is that it should have relevance to your listeners. If they hear about something they don’t care about, they will switch off, so it is vital to know what matters to them.
In addition to deciding what is important, you must balance your bulletin with the right pace and structure. Too many long complicated stories may leave your listeners breathless, whereas too much fast moving news might lose their interest altogether. The best way to achieve the right balance is to rank your stories in order of importance then look at them afresh to see whether any can be cut or if some need to be pushed forward to create better pace.
The headlines at the start of your bulletin should be attractive and eye-catching. They should suggest the drama of the story to the listener, and hint at it without giving away all the details. Many stations also like to put a dramatic story at the end of their bulletin, on the assumption that listeners will stay tuned until they hear it.
A good bulletin must include short recorded sound called actuality, such as the sounds of speeches or interviews with people who have a direct connection with the story. These clips can make a bulletin more interesting and credible, and they help break up the monotony of long passages of reading.