What does newsroom jargon like splash, spike and standfirst mean?

A working vocabulary, much of it inherited from print production, that persists because it is precise — each term names something that would otherwise take a sentence.

Page and story terms:

Splash — the main front-page story.

Lead — the top story on any page or section.

Nib — news in brief, a very short item.

Filler — a short piece used to complete a page.

Puff — a promotional item flagging content elsewhere in the paper.

Structural terms:

Intro or lede — the opening paragraph carrying the essential facts.

Standfirst — the short explanatory paragraph between the headline and the article, setting up the piece. Called a deck or dek in American usage.

Kicker — usage varies confusingly: in British practice a short line above the headline; in American practice sometimes the opening or a closing line.

Pull quote — a quotation extracted and enlarged within the layout.

Byline — the reporter's name. Dateline — the place and date a report was filed from.

Sidebar — a short accompanying piece.

Process terms:

Spike — to kill a story. From the literal metal spike on which rejected copy was impaled.

Copy — the written text itself.

Subbing — sub-editing: checking, cutting to length, and writing headlines. Sub-editors write most headlines, not reporters, which explains why a headline sometimes misrepresents its own article.

Cut from the bottom — shortening by deleting final paragraphs, which the inverted pyramid structure permits.

Graf — a paragraph. Nut graf — the paragraph explaining why the story matters.

Hold — a story ready but not yet running. Embargo — material supplied in advance, not to be published before a set time.

Correx — a correction.

TK — "to come", marking missing material, spelled so it is easy to search for and almost never occurs in ordinary English.

30 or ends — traditional markers for the end of copy.

Why it survives digitally. The production process changed; the functions did not.