Journalism Crossword Puzzle

Print a criss-cross vocabulary crossword for a journalism class: story parts, newsroom jobs, reporting, ethics and press history.

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Journalism Crossword

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Answer key: Journalism Crossword

1H2F3SEAO4T5IPACUN6EDITORTLC7DEADLINEERNV8LEADI9C10REPORTERWL11QUOTEM12BYLINE

Across 4 TIP · 6 EDITOR · 7 DEADLINE · 8 LEAD · 10 REPORTER · 11 QUOTE · 12 BYLINE

Down 1 HEADLINE · 2 FACT · 3 SOURCE · 5 INTERVIEW · 9 COLUMN

Next step Plan a newspaper articleFind media words in a word search

All 128 clues

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Parts of a News Story 22

  • Angle The focus a writer picks, such as the human side
  • Body All of a story after its opening
  • Brief News item only a few sentences long
  • Byline It starts with By and ends with a name
  • Caption Line or two set under a picture
  • Credit Small line that tells who took a photo
  • Cutline Longer block of text under a photo, giving context
  • Dateline First words of a filed report, naming the place it came from
  • Draft Rough copy a writer turns in before the edits
  • Graphic Chart, map or diagram that runs with a story
  • Headline A story's title, set big and bold
  • Hed Insider spelling of the word for a story's title, misspelled on purpose
  • Kicker Last story in a newscast, a happy one to end the show
  • Lead The top of a story, sometimes written lede
  • Nutshell The nut graf explains the context of a story "in a ___"
  • Pyramid Inverted ___: story shape with the key points on top
  • Quote What a speaker really said, word for word
  • Sidebar Short companion piece boxed off next to the main article
  • Subhead Small heading that breaks a long article into parts
  • Summary What a hard-news opening gives of the whole event
  • Tense Most verbs in a story's title are in the simple present ___
  • Why Last of the Five Ws, in the order taught to beginners by 1913

Newsroom Jobs 18

  • Anchor Face of the evening newscast
  • Bureau Foreign ___: a news outpost where a correspondent is based
  • Critic Writer who judges new films, books or plays
  • Desk City ___: the team that handles a paper's hometown news
  • Editor Boss with the final say on a story
  • Embedded Word for a war correspondent attached to a military unit, used from 2003
  • Forecaster On-air person who predicts tomorrow's rain or sun
  • Freelancer Self-employed worker not committed to one employer
  • Intern Beginner who spends a summer at a paper to learn the trade
  • Newsie Nickname for a child who sold papers in the street
  • Paperboy Young person who delivers the news on a regular route, often by bicycle
  • Photographer Journalist who tells a story with images
  • Producer Person who puts a newscast together behind the camera
  • Publisher Head of the business that owns and puts out a paper
  • Reporter One who asks, listens and writes it up
  • Staff Everyone on the payroll of one paper
  • Stringer Contributor paid for each piece, with no regular salary
  • Teleprompter Screen that shows a script in front of a camera lens

Sections and Kinds of Stories 22

  • Advice Kind of regular piece in a question and answer format
  • Broadcast News on the air, by radio or TV, not on paper
  • Cartoon Drawing with caricatures of public figures that gives the artist's view
  • Column A writer's own spot, back every week
  • Comics Page of drawn strips in panels
  • Crossword Word game a New York paper first printed on December 21, 1913
  • Exclusive Story that one outlet has and no other
  • Feature Long piece that covers a single topic in detail; soft news
  • Flash News ___: another name for a report that interrupts a program
  • Letter A reader's note about an issue of concern, sent in to be printed
  • Magazine Glossy periodical, often out once a month
  • Obituary Article about the life of someone who has recently died
  • Op-ed Outside writer's piece named for its place opposite another page
  • Podcast Audio series many listeners follow on a phone
  • Profile Story that paints a picture of one person
  • Recap Short retelling of last night's game
  • Review A judgment of a new book or film
  • Sound bite Short clip of speech taken from a longer piece of audio
  • Sports Pages with scores and standings
  • Watchdog "___ reporting": a name for digging into hidden problems and abuse of power
  • Weather Forecast part of a newscast
  • Yearbook Class volume that a student team writes and lays out, page by page

Reporting and Ethics 30

  • Accuracy Getting every name, number and date right
  • Anonymous Unnamed; how a tipster may ask to stay
  • Beat City hall, schools or crime, for the one journalist assigned to it over time
  • Bias Slant; a lean to one side in how events are told
  • Conference Press ___: event where journalists hear a speaker and ask questions
  • Confirm Back up a claim with a second person or document
  • Correction What a paper runs to set a factual error right
  • Coverage Wall-to-wall ___: all there is to say on one big event
  • Deadline Hour the finished story is due
  • Embargo Request that information not be published until a certain date
  • Ethics Code of ___: a profession's written principles of good practice
  • Fact It checks out; no guess, no feeling
  • Interview Sit-down with a notepad and a list of things to ask
  • Libel What printer John Peter Zenger was accused of in 1734
  • Morgue A paper's name for its files of old clippings and notes
  • Notebook Pocket pad for writing down what people say
  • Objectivity Fairness, factuality and nonpartisanship, in one word
  • Paywall Barrier that limits online articles to paying subscribers
  • Plagiarism Copied work signed as new: a breach of academic integrity and of a journalist's code
  • Release Press ___: official statement delivered to the media
  • Research Digging through documents before the writing starts
  • Rumor Hallway whisper with no name behind it
  • Scoop News reported by one outlet before all the others
  • Shorthand Fast symbol writing, also called stenography
  • Source Who or what a writer got it from
  • Stylebook A paper's manual of rules for spelling and usage
  • Tip Hint from the public that starts a story
  • Typo Short name for a spelling slip in print
  • Verify Make sure a claim is true before it runs
  • Witness Bystander with a firsthand account

Print and Press History 36

  • Amendment First ___: part of the Bill of Rights, adopted in 1791, that names the press
  • Archive Stored collection of a paper's back numbers
  • Boston City where the first multi-page paper in British America appeared in 1690
  • Broadsheet Biggest of the paper sizes; the smaller Berliner is another
  • Censorship A free press means little or none of this from the state
  • Cent Price of the cheapest 1830s papers, when others cost about six
  • Circulation How many of each issue a paper distributes, on average
  • Daily Paper that comes out every day
  • Edition Late ___: the last run of the night
  • Estate "Fourth ___": term for the press as a power in politics
  • Fold "Above the ___": the upper half of page one
  • Forum In Rome, the Acta Diurna went up on message boards here
  • Fourteen Years the American colonies waited for another paper after the one of 1690 was closed
  • Freedom "___ of speech, or of the press": words of the Bill of Rights
  • Gazette Paper name borrowed from the name of a Venetian coin
  • Goldsmith Trade of the German who invented the printing press around 1440
  • Governor Colonial official offended by the first issue of a 1690 paper, which was closed in days
  • Ink Black stuff a fresh paper leaves on your thumbs
  • Jury Group that acquitted a New York printer, who became a symbol of a free press
  • Masthead In American use, the printed list of a paper's owners and officers
  • Motto A few proud words a paper may print with its title
  • Muckraker Reform-minded writer of the Progressive Era who exposed corruption
  • Nameplate A paper's designed title on page one, also called the flag
  • Newsprint Cheap, low-grade stock that most papers are printed on
  • Newsstand Kiosk with the morning front pages on show
  • Penny ___ press: cheap American papers of the 1830s
  • Proof Galley ___: early pull compared with the manuscript
  • Steam Power that let 1830s printers mass-produce cheap papers
  • Strasbourg City of the Relation, recognised as the world's first newspaper
  • Strike What New York newsboys began in July 1899; it lasted two weeks
  • Tabloid Compact paper; a drug company first used the word for compressed pills
  • Telegraph Point-to-point system in use from the 1840s, the first electrical way to send text far
  • Typesetting Hot metal ___: casting molten metal into glyphs for printing
  • Weekly How often a small-town paper may come out
  • Wire ___ service: agency that sells its reports to many subscribers
  • Yellow ___ journalism: 1890s New York style of eye-catching front pages

How this list was compiled: Clues written for this site for grades 5 to 12, in five sets. Terms, dates and names were checked against English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0) and, for the First Amendment, the National Archives' transcription of the Bill of Rights (archives.gov) in October 2026. No living person and no newspaper or broadcaster of today is named in a clue. Licence: own work

How it works

This journalism crossword puzzle prints on Letter or A4, answer key included. The first puzzle has 12 newsroom basics, among them Headline, Byline, Lead, Source, Editor, Deadline, Quote and Column.

Read the full guide

Five sets after the basics

Parts of a News Story has Dateline, Cutline, Sidebar and Nutshell. Newsroom Jobs has Stringer, Publisher, Anchor and Bureau. Sections and Kinds of Stories has Feature, Op-ed, Obituary and Profile. Reporting and Ethics has Embargo, Libel, Plagiarism and Correction. Print and Press History has Gazette, Broadsheet, Tabloid and Muckraker.

Dates a class can check

History clues carry their dates: the printing press of around 1440, the Boston paper of 1690 that was closed after one issue, the libel accusation of 1734 that ended with a jury clearing the printer, the First Amendment of 1791 and the newsboys' strike of July 1899.

  • For a school newspaper staff, hand out Parts of a News Story first and Reporting and Ethics before the first interviews.

Questions and answers

Is there a printable journalism crossword puzzle with answers?

Yes. Press Print: the grid and its clues come first and the answer key prints last, filled in, with the answers by clue number. It is free, with no sign-up.

What grade is the journalism crossword puzzle for?

Newsroom Basics suits grades 5 to 8. The five themed sets suit a middle or high school journalism, newspaper or yearbook class, with answers such as Stringer, Embargo and Masthead. These bands are our judgment, not a published standard.

What are the Five Ws in journalism?

Who, what, when, where and why: the questions the lead of a news story should answer. Reporters were taught the list as far back as 1913. Why is an answer in Parts of a News Story.

What is the difference between a lead and a lede?

None in meaning: both name the opening paragraph of a story. Lede is a spelling sometimes used in the United States. The answer in this puzzle is Lead.

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