In the "hot type" days, when entire pages were typed on Linotype machines according to handwritten instructions atop paper copy, "lead" referred to the metal; bits of it were inserted between paragraphs to provide spacing.<p>"Lede" referred to the "grafs" at the beginning of the story. This was to avoid confusion for the Linotype operators, who worked in the composing room, not the newsroom. <p>(The only Linotype machines I've seen are quaint items on display in lobbies. Still, I was taught to use "lede" rather than "lead." Don't know when "lede" fell out of favor.)<p>On an unrelated note: To this day, for reasons I don't know, many writers use "lead" for the past tense of "lead." This is plain wrong, while using "lede" for the first graf of a story probably seems to be an affectation to most in newsrooms.<p>Also: When I attended J school a few decades ago, "lede" or "lead" referred to the top of the story, which might be the first graf or several, depending on the writer's approach.
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