What to call the "Short News" section/module?

Question

I have a classic section called "Latest News & Articles" which is in the bigger left column.

But then I want to have a block with "short news" like here (screenshot from games.cz):

In Czech it's called "bleskovky" which is something like flash news or news flash ("blesk" means flash).

But I am not sure if "Newsflash" is good for this kind of information.

This "short" news e.g. don't need to have a subpage or they could be only one or two sentence long.

What do you call that in English? "Newsflash" or "Short news" or something else?

Answer 1

To add yet another answer to a long list of good ones, this is what I would advise:

• Do not use "short", as in "short news".

A news article can be short, and other kinds of news reports can be short, but it makes no sense to talk about the length of news itself. (For one thing, news is used as a 'mass noun', so there is no such thing as a news. More importantly, the word refers to the actual events, not specific reports on them (unless you add "report", or "article", etc.)).

• Do not use "news flash".

That term means that the news is being delivered with little delay. It does not refer to how much time it will take to read, listen to, or watch the news report. The term "news flash" also carries a connotation of importance (because very important reports are the ones that are more urgent to deliver with little delay (perhaps interrupting regular programs on TV, for example)).

• Using "quick news" would be OK.

This is similar to "short news" but much better. It is still a bit confusing to use an adjective referring to how much time is required to take in the news reports (reading etc.) and not referring to the news items themselves, but it is much more intuitive than with "short" (probably because a news item can't have a speed, but it almost makes sense for it to have a length, so it is clearer that "quick" must refer to something else).

• Using "news ticker", as suggested by others here, would also be OK.

Some people might be more attached to the word "ticker" meaning continuous updates on a single specific measurement, but as long as you have it with the word "news", it is fairly clear what you mean, since it is called a "news ticker" on so many video news programs. I get the impression that your feed scrolls as new reports come in too, and that is a hallmark of a ticker.

• Use "news digest" or "news snippets" if you specifically want something that refers to the reports being short.

A "digest" is a compilation, and can also convey abridgement (shortening, summaries). It really does sound like exactly what you what. There is a chance that people less familiar with English would find "snippets" easier. This word sends a bit of a different message, though, since it refers to a part of something instead of a summary of something.

• Use "news feed" or "news stream" if you just want to convey that it is live and stays up to date.

This does not really suggest that the news reports are short, but if the title is only seen when you can already see some reports, then you may not need to point out that they are short. Of course, you may still want to go with "digest" or "snippets" to keep it clear in the mind of the user that you do have that longer-form news section you mentioned.

Answer 2

I would definitely not go with 'Short News' since it implies the news story is short. Which, from what I see, is not the case. You click on the item to be redirected to the complete article.

'Top News' seems like a fairly simple to understand and generic enough term to cover this.

Other alternatives include 'Trending News', 'Latest Stories', 'Featured News'. Remember, stories and news are interchangeable depending on the language of the site.

And if even these don't work for you, just go with whatever topic the stories are about: 'Hollywood', 'Technology', etc.

News Flash is when you interrupt your ongoing program (on TV or Radio) - thefreedictionary.com/newsflash

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Examples:

bbc.com/news about 130 pixels from top, they use 'latest' title.

guardiannews.com calls the same thing 'breaking news'.

usatoday.com 'top new'/'trending news'. So on, so forth.

Answer 3

I would probably call this a News ticker.

I think it fits very nicely with the case you describe. On the left hand side you've got longer news articles and posts. The column on the right has shorter, brief news.

Facebook uses the term 'Ticker' for the brief news that are displayed on the right side of the screen in the desktop version. Basically all activity of friends is displayed there (at least as a teaser) while the news feed displays only important stories (but with some more detail) by default.

Wikipedia explains the term 'News ticker' and where is originates from. Quoting from there:

A news ticker [...] resides in the lower third of the television screen space on television news networks dedicated to presenting headlines or minor pieces of news. It may also refer to a long, thin scoreboard-style display seen around the front of some offices or public buildings.

[...]

Since the growth in usage of the World Wide Web, news tickers have largely syndicated news posts from the websites of the broadcasting services which produce the broadcasts.

Answer 4

I would steer away from using "news" at all. Try simply "Latest" as the title. Or, if you have some statistical engine that makes popular or trending topics bubble to the top, use "Trending" or "Popular."

The content of that section may include "proper" journalistic news, but it may also contain a blog post, tweet or other social update. We as Web users understand what this content is. However, we may not understand if it's relevant, recent or read-worthy. The fact that it is "short" in length is only an enticement to click on it. It functions as a "ticker tape" containing headlines (but I wouldn't use that word, either). The shortness or flash-ness of the content doesn't add any meaning or purpose.

I would avoid using "short". I don't think it will convey any meaning to English speakers (such as myself). Definitely avoid "Shortly" which has idiomatic consequences unrelated to news. "News" is also a worn-out term. Anecdotal-ly, "News" leads people to think of newspaper and television. People are less interested in "news" and more interested in "connection"

Answer 5

I would recommend not to name the block after the some visual attributes, i.e. "Short News", "Green Block", etc. This features already perceived by users.

It's better to reflect functional (what it does) or semantic features (what is it for). Here you can use labels from formal "External News" to less formal but still meaningful "News of the World" (separating your site from others) and options between: "Resources", "Others write".

The point is to be less ambigous in naming both (external and internal) news blocks.

Hope it helps. I wish it was the biggest UX problem on your site ).

Answer 6

"Bulletin" seems to be the word you're looking for.

Definition of BULLETIN

1: a brief public notice issuing usually from an authoritative source; specifically : a brief news item intended for immediate publication or broadcast

Answer 7

Just my opinion - the whole idea behind it is to give users impression that the news here are as fresh as juice that has just been squeezed out of a fruit.

In these days, when all the news are published almost instantly, a conclusion appears that everything is fresh, recent, new. Portals publish news in various sections, out of which newest/most important stories are presented on top. While the power of sections is categorization so that user is fed with the news regarding his area of interest, the so called Top news sections are not pivoted around some topics, but around recency.

The hardest task is to show the newest where everything is new. While most sites use Latest news, Recent stories etc, all of these refer to past (recent, but still: past), and as all the news are quite new, quite recent, this does not really give impression of a higher value of these.

But recency is some kind of value. And so is importance. So, depending on what is your approach to it (to present the newest or the most important (and importance is affected by recency - importance of news decreases with time), I would do one of the following:

• if you refer to recency only (and this section is something like Inbox in GTD) - I think you could gain some additional interest of your users if you call it Right now, On top now or similarly. This will emphasise the recency where everything is recent.

• if you focus on importance I would stick to Top news or Top stories - it's quite obvious, that what's on top is what is most important and recent, and at the same time it's quite popular pattern, so it is a direction to follow.

Regarding Top news vs Top stories wording - as everything in a news portal is new, news does not give additional meaning. Stories, at the same time, give an impression that the information is longer, and potentially more interesting, so I would go in that direction. Of course, if these are stories not just brief news.

One more thing to consider - avoid having multiple "top" sections on your site. What is on top should be on top, otherwise users will get confused, not knowing if Top news is more on top than Flash news or Breaking news. And the top section should be also emphasized in a visual way.

So, as a conclusion, I would focus on having just one, visibly emphasized section related to the most recent and valuable news and call it Top stories if you can provide content interesting enough to call it stories.

Answer 8

"News Briefs" is what this might be called on a news site. You might want to change it to something that fits with your brand, like "Quick Shots," for example.

Answer 9

Well usually, it can be called a ticker, ie if this set of news is going to appear and disappear after sometime, being replaced by another set of news, to be shown again later.

Or you can call it News at a glance as it is what you are intending here. Or you can go for some fancy headings like Today's Scoop or Bulletin Board. In the end, all this means the same thing. You just have to pick what you think is the best. I think you should go for Today's Scoop if you want it to sound a bit casual else go for Bulletin Board making it sound official but still, somewhat different from what you usually see in other sites.

You can also go for Handpicked if you are selecting the new by some category or criteria.

Answer 10

Why not simply Headlines?

Take a look at the different Dow Jones Widgets (http://djip.dowjones.com/showcase/Browse - these widgets simply show different alternatives of displaying news articles) and at how they use different terminology.

Answer 11

These are also called alerts.

Many people have given fine answers, but if the feed contains items that must draw the users' attention, then "alert" is the terminology describing that context-of-necessity.

Answer 12

I will build up on the idea of "headlines" and suggest the name "Headline News" which is clearer (like on CNN).

"Hot news" proposed above is also OK; in contrast, I think that "Top news" is not good enough for non-native English speakers, as "top" can indicate location, position, or ranking while your news feed might be FIFO.

Also, if your users are actually gamers/techies maybe "News Snippets" will work.

Answer 13

A lot of accepted terms have already been listed. It feels like "News feed" could be acceptable?

The best I can think of that hasn't already been covered would be:

News in brief News overview

Answer 14

Idea of short news is a meaning of reading information quickly. It means the shortened news are not lack of rich details (detail stories about it). A detailed news emerges in time and been highly dug deep for its need of importance, so it means that short news is more of a precursor or digesting information in quick time. So it's a measure of time and importance that makes it to put into this section that its not missed out. A short news if intended as side stories which does not cover main stories - may be emerging stories. These are placed once again on importance but no more the main topics.

So you end up leading this to either they are my MAIN or SIDE - emerging in time.

MAIN being the root (Visually aligning the page to get more of this short news visible)

1. Headlines

2. News in 30 Seconds or 1 minute News

3. Today's Pick

4. Hot News or Hot list

5. Must reads

6. Big stories

Obviously I guess all this will have a link to read more of this short news (2 liner is not the reader ideally wish to, in case it's more of interest or need)

SIDE being the root (Visually keeping this off from Main topics- specifically differentiating to say this is also in here)

1. Flash News (flash is ideally the NOW - the visual representation to be more of a ticker or dynamic to give it that perspective)

2. Trending

3. Happenings

Ideally I cannot think "short news" as a term to describe news - as it's only a figment of what we perceive, and all news start with 2-5 liner to give a sneak-peak or teaser may be with an image or not. Now when we want these truncated feeds to lead to the detailed versions. IMHO finding the relevance to short news as Main or Side will then alter our representation or phrase.

Answer 15

1. News-Briefs
2. News-Blitz
3. Hard News

Answer 16

This seems like an internationalization question on appropriate terminology. Something called "Flash News" or "News Flash" in the original language could be called "Briefings" or "Daily Briefing" in English without changing the meaning of that chunk of the page.

Answer 17

I would call them News Bits or "News Ticks"

Answer 18

Headlines, bulletins, featured, front page news.