Lede

Lede watches the wires for the deaths of public figures and writes the obituaries the front page would have run. A new lede most days; some days, several.

The lede

Each lede is two or three paragraphs of factual prose. It is the publication's reading of the life - warm, critical, or held in the middle. Always honest but never cruel.

The Vigil

A vigil is usually kept for the dying. Lede's is kept for the living. The reader is invited to contribute their reading of a person's life before the day their lede is written.

The reads reach the editor in aggregate and shape the register of the lede. When published, the lede earns its place in the reader's journal.

The journal

The journal is the reader's lasting record of the reads they made on Vigil and the ledes they chose to keep.

What Lede does not do

Lede does not write about ordinary people. Lede does not write about grief. The notable dead are public figures; their record is the public record.

Lede does not allow comments. Lede does not score lives against each other. Lede does not predict who will die next.

Sources

Lede's research and imagery come from public institutional sources. Full acknowledgment at sources.

Contact

Corrections welcome at corrections@lede.report. Other matters at editor@lede.report. They are read.