Tell the main points of the story in the lede. The main points will be the facts that make the story newsworthy, and the reason why the story is being printed in the first place. Often on the front page of a newspaper, the lede will be short, businesslike and to the point. For example: "The President held a secret meeting with the Soviet leader yesterday in Moscow."
Cover the 5 Ws and H in the lede. These include the who, what, why, where, when, and how of the story. All five may not always be included, but include as many as possible in any lede.
Grab the interest of your readers. Use strong language to get the readers interested and tell them why the story is important. The lede should contain only active voice statements. For example, use "The team manager declined the trade and offered a different player" instead of "Declining the trade, the team manager offered a different player."
Keep the lede concise. Though a lot of information is usually put into the lede, keep it as brief as possible, using no extra language and including only the essential facts. Extra words should not be added to paint a description of the scene or the attitude of the participants. These should be included in the following paragraphs.
Do not open the lede with questions, quotations or exclamations. These types of writing tools, while useful in feature stories, books and other formats, are not generally used for news writing.