News flash
A news flash is the first signal of major information: a few words, a source, no context. What it actually tells you, and what it does not yet.
The flash is journalism's shortest format: one or two sentences announcing a major fact, sent at top priority down a news wire. It fits on a line — "X has died", "parliament rejected the bill" — with the source and the time, nothing else. The full write-up follows within minutes.
Its brevity is not laziness, it is the point: a flash exists to alert, not to explain. It lets hundreds of newsrooms learn at the same instant that something has happened and mobilise their teams. Agencies reserve that urgency level for very few stories a day.
On consumer sites, "news flash" has drifted to mean any brief or alert banner. The careful reader watches the attribution above all: "according to police", "per a statement" — it is the sourcing, not the urgency, that shows what is actually known.
Related reading
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Breaking news is major information published while the event is still unfolding. What it means, what it is worth, and why it keeps getting corrected.
- WireGlossary
The wire is the continuous stream of dispatches a news agency sends its clients. How it works, and why the reader never sees it directly.
- The difference between a dispatch and an articleGuides
A dispatch is a wholesale product written for newsrooms; an article is written for you. Two objects, two authors, two uses — and how to tell them apart.
- What is a news agency?Guides
News agencies write for newsrooms, not for you — and yet they supply a huge share of what you read. Their role, their customers and how they work.
- DeskGlossary
The desk is the fixed newsroom post that receives, sorts and shapes material coming in from outside. What a desk does, and why readers never see it.