Word that Joseph Duncan had been linked to a 1997 slaying of a 10-year-old boy in California came into the newsroom late yesterday afternoon, and reporter Bill Morlin scrambled to get a story together for the Web site and then flesh it out for the print edition.

The Riverside County (registration required) paper is reporting that Duncan had actually confessed to murdering the Anthony Martinez. We're checking it out...

Setting the scene

The editors were sitting around the table, discussing the previous day's paper, just as they did every morning at 10:00. They listened intently as a reporter described what she felt was a preponderance of anecdotal leads in today's paper.

An anecdotal lead is one that sets the scene rather than jumping into the news right away (examples here, here and here). Research shows that readers aren't crazy about them, and it was agreed that it's something reporters should watch out for and try to avoid when possible (for the record, the reporter that raised the issue acknowledged the advice applied to herself as well).

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