A good news bulletin is a mixture of hard and soft stories, with an emphasis on events and people which have relevance to the audience. It must have a steady pace throughout to maintain interest, with variations in pace to allow listeners to catch their breath or pick up lagging attention. It must also be concise, as most audiences do not have time to listen to long and complicated stories and will switch off if they become bored.
The opening headlines will attract listeners to the bulletin and should suggest the kind of mix which is being presented. This mix will vary to some extent according to the format of your station; a serious national radio service may use more serious stories delivered in a deliberate style while youth-oriented music stations might have more light-hearted items about popular culture.
Once the opening headlines have been read, it is usual to start the bulletin with one or two dramatic stories to grab listeners and keep them tuned in until the end of the bulletin. The actual timing of these stories will depend on the length of the bulletin; a five or 10 minute story about a major disaster can be told in a very short space of time with a single short audio clip, but an explanation of a complex political controversy might require several longer sentences and more words to convey the information.
It is a good idea to include sound bites in longer bulletins; these are short audio clips which give the listener first-hand evidence and help to make a story more compelling and credible. They can be included as part of a voice report or as stand-alone clips.