Hard Lead vs. Soft Lead

I don't have a preference for hard leads over soft leads because I think it really depends on the type of story being written. Each does have it's own strengths and weaknesses though. For hard leads I believe a strength is that it puts all the information out there for the reader. They're quick and to the point which is convenient if the reader is just trying to the gist of the story without reading the whole thing. A weakness of a hard lead is that they can sometimes be too intense. A story might not call for a hard lead so using one can come off as strange and unnecessary. For soft leads, I believe a strength is that they can be fun. They're more relaxed and can feel like reading a story as opposed to a news article. A weakness is that they can take a little longer to get to the point, which may cause some readers to lose interest.

In the Globe I've found that hard leads are usually found in stories on the front page as well as in other stories that are considered big news. For example, the main story on their web page today was about a man who discovered a lost plant species. The lead was a hard one and put a lot of the who, what, where and when right into the first sentence. An example of a soft lead can be found in their lifestyle section where there's an article that talks about the appeal of Manchester to traveler's. The lead sets a scene of Manchester and doesn't offer many clues as to what the angle of the story will be.