How do I format inline quotations for a news story?
Let’s say I’ve interviewed a CEO and now need to quote her for my story. I’m not sure if her name or title would come first after the closing quotation and comma. For example:
“Fiduciary duty is a consideration in every investment we make,” said
Jane Goldwater, CEO of RandomCompany.
Or maybe it could be:
“Fiduciary duty is a consideration in every investment we make,” said
RandomCompany CEO Jane Goldwater.
How do you decide the way to format this?
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If the rest of the article is primarily about Jane, I would probably pick the first option, but the second wouldn't be wrong.
If the article is primarily about the company and we've not been introduced to Jane until now, I'm inclined towards the second option - leading with the name with which the reader is familiar, or is going to be familiar - but again this is not a hard rule and will depend on the context of the quote and the surrounding paragraphs.
Where Jane has been mentioned in earlier paragraphs (particularly if the reader already knows her position at RandomCompany), all you would need would be a "said Goldwater" or "Goldwater said".
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