Breaking News English

        

 

1. NEWS: Walk around the class and talk to other students about news. Change partners often. Share your findings with your first partner.

2. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics or words from the article are most interesting and which are most boring.

current affairs / publication / magazine / advertisers / digital version / subscribers / online format / serious trouble / saddled with debt / publications / romance of print

Have a chat about the topics you liked. Change topics and partners frequently.

3. NEWS FORMATS: What's good and bad about these ways of getting news? Complete this table with your partner(s). Change partners often and share what you wrote.

Format	Good	Bad	Improvements
Print
On computers
TV
Radio
Word-of-mouth
On iPad, etc.

4. HISTORY: Students A strongly believe all newspapers and magazines should die out in paper form; Students B strongly believe qqqqqqq.  Change partners again and talk about your conversations.

5. STORIES: What news stories so you like best? Rank these and share your rankings with your partner. Put the best at the top. Change partners often.

wars celebrity gossip sport local

environment business international weird stuff

6. NEWSPAPER: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word 'newspaper'. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories.

BEFORE READING / LISTENING

1. TRUE / FALSE: Read the headline. Guess if  a-h  below are true (T) or false (F).

a.	Newsweek has gone out of business and will finish up in December.	T / F
b.	The magazine is over 100 years old.	T / F
c.	The number of people who subscribe to Newsweek halved a while ago.	T / F
d.	The site Newsweek merged with has over 15 million visitors a month.	T / F
e.	Newsweek's revenue fell by almost 40% two years ago.	T / F
f.	Newsweek's new editor wants to add more romance to the magazine.	T / F
g.	The editor stressed the importance of digital editions of the publication.	T / F
h.	The editor said economics and news distribution weren't a challenge.	T / F

2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article.

1.	famous	a.	increasing
2.	established	b.	welcome
3.	rising	c.	joined forces
4.	heyday	d.	delivery
5.	merged	e.	renowned
6.	switch	f.	appeal
7.	revive	g.	prime
8.	romance	h.	shift
9.	embrace	i.	started
10.	distribution	j.	energize

3. PHRASE MATCH:  (Sometimes more than one choice is possible.)

1.	world-famous current	a.	Newsweek's fortunes
2.	been in print	b.	has also halved
3.	advertisers willing	c.	with debt
4.	The number of subscribers	d.	for the past 80 years
5.	The transition has been in the works for	e.	digital future
6.	revive	f.	of print publishing
7.	saddled	g.	affairs magazine
8.	the romance of	h.	a number of years
9.	embrace the all-	i.	to buy space
10.	the challenging economics	j.	print

WHILE READING / LISTENING

GAP FILL: Put the words into the gaps in the text.

The world-famous current (1) ____________ magazine "Newsweek" has announced it will stop printing its publication at the end of the year and will become online-only. The magazine was (2) ____________ in 1933 and has been in (3) ____________ for the past 80 years. However, rising costs of publishing and a fall in the number of advertisers (4) ____________ to buy space in newspapers and magazines mean a move to a digital version. The number of (5) ____________ has also halved from its 2001 (6) ____________ of over 3 million to 1.5 million today. The transition has been in the (7) ____________ for a number of years. In 2010, Newsweek (8) ____________ with the Internet news site "The Daily Beast" which has over 15 million visitors a month.		print works established subscribers merged affairs willing heyday
The switch to an online-only (9) ____________ is expected to revive Newsweek's fortunes. It was in serious (10) ____________ in 2010 when its revenue dropped nearly 40 per cent in two years. It was saddled with (11) ____________ and its owner, The Washington Post Company, sold the company for just $1.00. The Daily Beast's editor Tina Brown now (12) ____________ both publications. She said profit had to come before "the (13) ____________ of print". She told reporters: "We must sustain the journalism that gives the magazine its (14) ____________ - and embrace the all-digital future. This decision is not about the quality of the (15) ____________ or the journalism - that is as powerful as ever. It is about the              (16) ____________ economics of print publishing and distribution."		debt purpose trouble romance format challenging runs brand

LISTENING – Listen and fill in the gaps

The world-(1) ______________________ magazine "Newsweek" has announced it will stop printing its publication at the end of the year and will become online-only. The magazine (2) ______________________ has been in print for the past 80 years. However, (3) ______________________ and a fall in the number of advertisers willing to buy space in newspapers and magazines (4) ______________________ digital version. The number of subscribers has (5) ______________________ 2001 heyday of over 3 million to 1.5 million today. The transition has been in the works for a number of years. In 2010, Newsweek (6) ______________________ news site "The Daily Beast" which has over 15 million visitors a month.

The switch to an online-only format (7) ______________________ Newsweek's fortunes. (8) ______________________ in 2010 when its revenue dropped nearly 40 per cent in two years. (9) ______________________ and its owner, The Washington Post Company, sold the company for just $1.00. The Daily Beast's editor Tina Brown now (10) ______________________. She said profit had to come before "(11) ______________________ ". She told reporters: "We must sustain the journalism that gives the magazine its purpose - and embrace the all-digital future. This decision is not about the quality of the brand or the journalism - that (12) ______________________. It is about the challenging economics of print publishing and distribution."

 
 

AFTER READING / LISTENING

1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionary / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words 'current' and 'affairs'.

current

affairs

• Share your findings with your partners.

• Make questions using the words you found.
• Ask your partner / group your questions.

2. ARTICLE QUESTIONS: Look back at the article and write down some questions you would like to ask the class about the text.

• Share your questions with other classmates / groups.
• Ask your partner / group your questions.

3. GAP FILL: In pairs / groups, compare your answers to this exercise. Check your answers. Talk about the words from the activity. Were they new, interesting, worth learning…?

4. VOCABULARY: Circle any words you do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find their meanings.

5. TEST EACH OTHER: Look at the words below. With your partner, try to recall how they were used in the text:

announced 1933 willing halved works merged

serious dropped runs romance purpose economics

NEWSWEEK AND NEWS SURVEY

From  http://www.BreakingNewsEnglish.com/1210/121019-newsweek.html

Write five GOOD questions about Newsweek and news in the table. Do this in pairs. Each student must write the questions on his / her own paper.

When you have finished, interview other students. Write down their answers.

	STUDENT 1 _____________	STUDENT 2 _____________	STUDENT 3 _____________
Q.1.
Q.2.
Q.3.
Q.4.
Q.5.

• Now return to your original partner and share and talk about what you found out. Change partners often.

• Make mini-presentations to other groups on your findings.

 
 

NEWSWEEK AND NEWS DISCUSSION

STUDENT A's QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)

a)	What did you think when you read the headline?
b)	What springs to mind when you hear the word 'news'?
c)	Where do you get your news from mainly?
d)	What do you think of Newsweek's decision?
e)	Is there any need for news magazines in today's digital age?
f)	Are newspapers already out of date by the time they are published?
g)	What advantages does print have over the Internet?
h)	Is it better to subscribe to magazines or surf the Internet for free?
i)	What is the best source for news in the world and why do you think so?
j)	What do you think of the name "The Daily Beast" for a news site?

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STUDENT B's QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)

a)	Did you like reading this article?
b)	Is news reporting in your country of a high quality and very objective?
c)	How important is looking at, reading about, or listening to news to you?
d)	Why do so many newspapers and news channels report on bad news so often?
e)	How could Newsweek have been sold for $1?
f)	What do you think of English-language newspapers?
g)	What do you think of "the romance of print"? Is there something appealing about a real newspaper as opposed to a computer screen
h)	How important is journalism?
i)	How important is freedom of the press?
j)	What questions would you like to ask The Daily Beast editor Tina Brown?

LANGUAGE – MULTIPLE CHOICE

The world-famous (1) ____ affairs magazine "Newsweek" has announced it will stop printing its publication at the end of the year and will become online-only. The magazine was (2) ____ in 1933 and has been in print for the past 80 years. However, rising costs of publishing and a fall in the number of advertisers (3) ____ to buy space in newspapers and magazines mean a move to a digital (4) ____ for Newsweek. The number of subscribers has also halved from its 2001 (5) ____ of over 3 million to 1.5 million today. The transition has been in the works for a number of years. In 2010, Newsweek merged (6) ____ the Internet news site "The Daily Beast" which has over 15 million visitors a month.

The switch to an online-only format is expected to (7) ____ Newsweek's fortunes. It was in serious trouble in 2010 when its revenue dropped nearly 40 per cent in two years. It was saddled (8) ____ debt and its owner, The Washington Post Company, sold the company for just $1.00. The Daily Beast's editor Tina Brown now runs both publications. She said profit had to come before "the (9) ____ of print". She told reporters: "We must (10) ____ the journalism that gives the magazine its purpose - and (11) ____ the all-digital future. This decision is not about the quality of the brand or the journalism - that is as powerful as ever. It is about the (12) ____ economics of print publishing and distribution."

Put the correct words from the table below in the above article.

1.	(a)	concurrent	(b)	currency	(c)	currant	(d)	current
2.	(a)	uploaded	(b)	posted	(c)	formation	(d)	established
3.	(a)	billing	(b)	willing	(c)	filling	(d)	milling
4.	(a)	addition	(b)	showcase	(c)	version	(d)	online
5.	(a)	payday	(b)	May Day	(c)	heyday	(d)	grey day
6.	(a)	with	(b)	to	(c)	between	(d)	from
7.	(a)	kiss of life	(b)	revive	(c)	kiss of death	(d)	relive
8.	(a)	with	(b)	as	(c)	at	(d)	among
9.	(a)	romantic	(b)	romance	(c)	romancing	(d)	romantically
10.	(a)	suspicious	(b)	suspend	(c)	sustain	(d)	suspense
11.	(a)	bracelet	(b)	embargo	(c)	embrace	(d)	braced
12.	(a)	challenger	(b)	challenges	(c)	challenge	(d)	challenging

 
 

WRITING

Write about Newsweek and news for 10 minutes. Correct your partner's paper.

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HOMEWORK

1. VOCABULARY EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google's search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find out more about Newsweek. Share what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson.

3. NEWS: Make a poster about news and how people get it. Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things?

4. NEWSWEEK: Write a magazine article about Newsweek's decision. Include imaginary interviews with its editor and a Newsweek subscriber who loves the print edition.

Read what you wrote to your classmates in the next lesson. Write down any new words and expressions you hear from your partner(s).

5. LETTER: Write a letter to Newsweek's editor. Ask her three questions about the decision to go digital-only. Give her three of your opinions on how to make the online version really good. Read your letter to your partner(s) in your next lesson. Your partner(s) will answer your questions.

 

 
 

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

a.

F

b.

F

c.

T

d.

T

e.

T

f.

F

g.

T

h.

F

SYNONYM MATCH:

1.	famous	a.	renowned
2.	established	b.	started
3.	rising	c.	increasing
4.	heyday	d.	prime
5.	merged	e.	joined forces
6.	switch	f.	shift
7.	revive	g.	energize
8.	romance	h.	appeal
9.	embrace	i.	welcome
10.	distribution	j.	delivery

PHRASE MATCH:

1.	world-famous current	a.	affairs magazine
2.	been in print	b.	for the past 80 years
3.	advertisers willing	c.	to buy space
4.	The number of subscribers	d.	has also halved
5.	The transition has been in the works for	e.	a number of years
6.	revive	f.	Newsweek's fortunes
7.	saddled	g.	with debt
8.	the romance of	h.	print
9.	embrace the all-	i.	digital future
10.	the challenging economics	j.	of print publishing

GAP FILL:

Newsweek to end its print edition

The world-famous current (1) affairs magazine "Newsweek" has announced it will stop printing its publication at the end of the year and will become online-only. The magazine was (2) established in 1933 and has been in (3) print for the past 80 years. However, rising costs of publishing and a fall in the number of advertisers (4) willing to buy space in newspapers and magazines mean a move to a digital version. The number of (5) subscribers has also halved from its 2001 (6) heyday of over 3 million to 1.5 million today. The transition has been in the (7) works for a number of years. In 2010, Newsweek (8) merged with the Internet news site "The Daily Beast" which has over 15 million visitors a month.

The switch to an online-only (9) format is expected to revive Newsweek's fortunes. It was in serious (10) trouble in 2010 when its revenue dropped nearly 40 per cent in two years. It was saddled with (11) debt and its owner, The Washington Post Company, sold the company for just $1.00. The Daily Beast's editor Tina Brown now (12) runs both publications. She said profit had to come before "the (13) romance of print". She told reporters: "We must sustain the journalism that gives the magazine its (14) purpose - and embrace the all-digital future. This decision is not about the quality of the (15) brand or the journalism - that is as powerful as ever. It is about the (16) challenging economics of print publishing and distribution."

LANGUAGE WORK

1 – d

2 – d

3 – b

4 – c

5 – c

6 – a

7 – b

8 – a

9 –b

10 – c

11 – c

12 – d

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