The simplest and most common story structure is one called the “inverted pyramid.”

It is also the most practical, because news stories need to be a particular length to fill up a predetermined amount of space in the newspaper. Editing to make such stories “fit” is done under severe deadline pressure. A story written in inverted pyramid format can be edited by trimming it one paragraph at a time, going from the bottom up, until the story is the right length. The editor doing the edits can do so confidently, because even though information is being cut from the story, it is being cut in ascending order of importance.

Think of the “inverted pyramid” as an upside-down triangle, with the narrow tip of less information pointing downward and the broad base of news-worthier details across the top. Stories written in inverted pyramid format therefore have the most newsworthy information at the beginning of the story and the less important news at the end.