Virtual Reporter provides checklists for information generally needed for most stories. It helps the real reporter to keep track of essential information, and not hand in an incomplete story.

Virtual Reporter cannot teach you how to write or structure a story. Computers have no sense of news values.

Remember that any item on the checklist can normally be used as the "angle" (or "lede" in USA-speak) for the story.

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Written by Kanthan Pillay as a public service toward better journalism. Thanks to Melvin Mencher for the inspiration provided by his Reporter's Checklist and Notebook published by McGraw Hill, and to the late Colin Howell for helping craft South African equivalents to the same. Virtual Reporter is Copyright © 1997-2024 All Rights Reserved

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