Scoop (news)

Scoops are important and likely to interest or concern many people. A scoop may be a new story, or a new aspect to an existing or breaking news story. It may be unexpected, surprising, formerly secret, and may come from an exclusive source. Events witnessed by many people generally cannot become scoops, (e.g., a natural disaster, or the announcement at a press conference). However, exclusive news content is not always a scoop, as it may not provide the requisite importance or excitement. A scoop may be also defined retrospectively; a story may come to be known as a scoop because of a historical change in perspective of a particular event. Due to their secret nature, scandals are a prime source of scoops (e.g., the Watergate scandal by Washington Post journalists Woodward and Bernstein).

Scoops are part of journalistic lore, and generally confer prestige on the journalist or news organization.

Word origin

The word scoop is of American origin and was first documented in 1874. Its use as a verb, meaning to beat another reporter or publication to a story was first recorded in 1884.