ABSTRACT
The right reading pace is one which is comfortable for the reader, clear to the listener, and which suits the station’s style. That could be anywhere between 140 and 220 words per minute. British radio usually favours 3 words per second, or 180wpm, which is a natural and pleasing pace. TV can run a little slower. Three words per second is also a handy formula for timing a script – a 20
second lead becomes 60 words, a 30-second story is 90 words, and so on. The ultra-slow 150wpm, which finds favour on and off in America and on
foreign language stations, permits a delivery which is almost Churchillian in its portentousness, and highly persuasive. It is the pace popularized by broadcasting giants like Edward R. Murrow who critics used to say took 10 seconds to get through his wartime dateline: ‘This . . . is . . . London.’ Pace is less important than clarity, and one of the most helpful aids to clear
reading is the pause. The pause is a cunning device with many uses. It divides the copy into sense groups and allows time for an important phrase to sink in. It permits a change of style between stories; can be used to indicate the beginning of a quote, and it gives the newsreader time to replenish their oxygen supply.
