Ledes from the Boston Globe, February 8, 2014

Interestingly, there were two stories under the headline for that day, so it afforded an opportunity to see two ledes on the same story.

The headline was "9-year-old killed by brother, 14, playing with gun".

The first story under that headline was titled "Search for solutions focuses on getting firearms off streets", by David Abel, and the lede reads: "With another child killed in Boston, officials, ministers, and activists are grappling with what, if anything, can be done to stop the shootings."

I feel this lede is kind of blah, and could be stronger. Perhaps use a more anecdotal lede, like "When the 911 call came in that a child had been shot...". Something more powerful and more dramatic that captures the tragedy of the situation. As it stands this lede seems to be neither an anecdotal nor a hard news lede. I think it's trying to be an anecdotal lede, but it's pretty weak.

The second story under that same headline was titled "Mattapan shooting an accident, police say", by Peter Schworm, Meghan Irons, and Maria Cramer. The lede for this story reads: "In what police describe as a horrific tragedy, a 9-year-old boy was shot and killed in his family's Mattapan apartment by his 14-year-old brother Friday morning, anguishing neighbors and prompting a plea from the city's mayor for residents to surrender unwanted guns." 

I think this lede works well. It's clearly a hard news lede that captures the pertinent facts of the story in a single paragraph, and gives readers enough information to allow them to determine if they wish to read the rest of the story.

Don Lyman