re: Journalism 101: to someone who probably won't get it.
"It's a rule of thumb, learned by people who study journalistic techniques, that most of your readers will not read past the first three paragraphs of a news article unless they are captivated, have nothing else to do, or are obsessive and will read the whole newspaper, even the ads. This explains why the front page, and the back page, are so important, and why so many articles start in either place and are continued inside. Inside is dead space, unless you get 'em in the first three paragraphs."
Sounds to me what you are describing is how to sell a newspaper, rather how to get people to read a newspaper.
As for the rest, I'll keep it brief: I would suggest that you not take up teaching english- at least not at the college level.