The news bulletin is the most important element of any radio or television broadcast. It is a very demanding job and requires a lot of skill, knowledge and experience. It is very important to get the balance and pace right. Too many long complicated stories will slow the bulletin down and cause listeners to lose interest. Too many short sharp stories can leave the bulletin sounding unstructured and disjointed. The ideal bulletin will have a steady pace throughout, with variations in pace; slower at times to allow listeners to catch their breath and faster at other times to pick up lagging interest.

Unlike newspaper stories, you have very little space on the radio to include lots of background information, so it is important to get the facts in your bulletin correct and concise. This can be a challenge, particularly when you are trying to report on events which have not yet fully developed and there is conflicting information available. It is also important not to sensationalise the information you are broadcasting. If you exaggerate or embellish a story, your audience will not believe it and may start to doubt the reliability of other information that you are broadcasting.

It is good practice to use a special theme to announce the bulletin and occasionally to use music within the bulletin itself (to separate different segments or to set the tone for particular stories). Any such musical inserts are called stabs or stings.