In
newspaper
A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as p ...
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
Overhead power cabling. The conductor consists of seven strands of steel (centre, high tensile strength), surrounded by four outer layers of aluminium (high conductivity). Sample diameter 40 mm
A wire is a flexible strand of metal.
Wire is c ...
reporters (in a "keyword slugline") as follows: "The keyword or slug (sometimes more than one word) clearly indicates the content of the story." 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.
In the production process of print
advertisements
Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...
, 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."
See also
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Screenplay slug line
''ScreenPlay'' is a television drama anthology series broadcast on BBC2 between 9 July 1986 and 27 October 1993.
Background
After single-play anthology series went off the air, the BBC introduced several showcases for made-for-television, fea ...
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Slug (web publishing)
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Slug (typesetting)
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 s ...
References
Newspaper terminology
Publishing terminology
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