A frequent mistake made by beginning journalists is to bury the intro . This happens when the news, the what-happened element, is not revealed until well into the story. The length of the intro is crucial. In news, an intro should be no more than 20-30 words . It can be shorter as long as it does not confuse the reader.
Long intros are tedious and readers tend to give-up on the story.
This one in The Australian newspaper is 43 words. Liberals in the Howard Cabinet will be free to vote and speak as they wish at next week's Constitutional Convention, potentially strengthening the hand of the republican forces, but the National Party will remain locked in to its anti-republican stance. But it's too long and loses the reader. And this one, again in The Australian last year. Sir Robert Menzies would have used his speaking skills to crush Pauline Hanson's One Nation, just as he crushed communism, Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett said after a memorial lecture in London in honour of the long-serving Liberal Party prime minister.