Slug (publishing)

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In newspaper editing, a slug is a short name given to an article that is in production. The story is labeled with its slug as it makes its way from the reporter through the editorial process. The AP Stylebook prescribes its use by wire reporters (in a "keyword slugline") as follows: "The keyword or slug (sometimes more than one word) clearly indicates the content of the story." [1] Sometimes a slug also contains code information that tells editors specific information about the story — for example, the letters "AM" at the beginning of a slug on a wire story tell editors that the story is meant for morning papers, while the letters "CX" indicate that the story is a correction to an earlier story. [2] [3]

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In the production process of print advertisements, a slug or slug line, refers to the "name" of a particular advertisement. Advertisements usually have several markers, ad numbers or job numbers and slug lines. Usually the slug references the offer or headline and is used to differentiate between different ad runs.

Etymology

"The origin of the term slug derives from the days of hot-metal printing, when printers set type by hand in a small form called a stick. Later huge Linotype machines turned molten lead into casts of letters, lines, sentences and paragraphs. A line of lead in both eras was known as a slug." [4]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linotype machine</span> Hot metal typesetting machine (1886–1980s)

The Linotype machine is a "line casting" machine used in printing which is manufactured and sold by the former Mergenthaler Linotype Company and related companies. It was a hot metal typesetting system that cast lines of metal type for one-time use. Linotype became one of the mainstays for typesetting, especially small-size body text, for newspapers, magazines, and posters from the late 19th century to the 1970s and 1980s, when it was largely replaced by phototypesetting and digital typesetting. The name of the machine comes from producing an entire line of metal type at once, hence a line-o'-type. It was a significant improvement over the previous industry standard of letter-by-letter manual typesetting using a composing stick and shallow subdivided trays, called "cases".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emphasis (typography)</span> Typographical distinction

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hot metal typesetting</span> Mechanical analog method for text composition

In printing and typography, hot metal typesetting is a technology for typesetting text in letterpress printing. This method injects molten type metal into a mold that has the shape of one or more glyphs. The resulting sorts or slugs are later used to press ink onto paper. Normally the typecasting machine would be controlled by a keyboard or by a paper tape.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slug (typesetting)</span>

In typesetting, a slug is any of several kinds of piece of lead or other type metal. One kind of slug is a piece of spacing material used to space paragraphs. In the era of commercial typesetting in metal type, they were usually manufactured in strips of 6-point lead. Another kind of slug is a single sort, bearing a single letter or any other symbol. More recently, a slug can be an entire line of Linotype typeset matter, where a single piece of lead has been cast bearing a line of text.

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References

  1. Associated Press: 2008 Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law, ISBN   978-0-917360-52-7, p.404
  2. "Newscript Glossary"
  3. "Best Practices: URLs"
  4. Massey, Kyle. "What's in a Slug?" . Retrieved 2018-07-31.