“JEWS, if I remember correctly, was frowned on as a slug because of the kill problem,” Mr. Was preferred for murder stories because KILL could be confused with the order to drop a story,” he added, recalling that the newsroom often sent “kill” orders when articles needed to be spiked. “SCOTUS was a biggie for Supreme Court stories,” the longtime reporter and columnist Clyde Haberman said, citing the acronym for Supreme Court of the United States. Thus, the slug often became STAN.Ĭlassic slugs are still used. But this was a problem with Pakistan, whose four-letter abbreviated form, PAKI, Britain would be shortened to BRIT, for example. REPUBS is strong.’ ”īefore The Times adopted a new print production system, slugs were four letters long.
“Instead of saying, ‘Would you please shorten that article about President Obama’s immigration announcementīy 300 words?’ we say things like, ‘Take 300 out of IMMIG. “Slugs make life easier around the newsroom,” Mr. Later huge Linotype machines turned molten lead into casts of letters, lines, sentences and paragraphs.Ī line of lead in both eras was known as a slug. The term slug derives from the days of hot-metal printing, when printers set type by hand in a small form called a stick. A monetary story about Greece is likely to be slugged DRACHMA, even though the country now uses the euro. Business also sidesteps conflicts by using currency names –Įven defunct ones. International reserves for any news out of Japan Business has to use JAPANECON, or some other alternative. If Business wants to write about the Japanese economy, for example, Country names are the province of the International Desk. The name can also be crucial in pitching stories to front-pageĮach article must have a unique name, and some desks “own” particular slugs. The naming of articles requires more coordination, foresight and concern than you might expect. Why? There is much in a name, especially in the newsroom. On the International Desk, the slug is PREXY. If the piece is produced on the National Desk, custom requires using the president’s
In newspaper jargon, a slug is the name given to an article, and at The Times, stories about Mr. No, that’s not an insult to the president.
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