A news bulletin is a short report bringing you up to date with current events. It should include a mix of stories, some serious and some light, some about major political events and others about ordinary people. It should have a steady pace throughout to keep listeners interested but with variations in pace at certain times, either slower to allow the audience to catch up or faster to pick up lagging interest. It should also contain sound bites (recorded spoken words from interviews or speeches) to add variety and help give the impression that your audience is hearing first-hand evidence of a story.
In practice it is hard to have exactly the right balance of stories and pace as you have to work within the constraints of time. The actual order of your stories will depend to some extent on the style and format of your station; a serious national broadcaster will use more serious stories delivered in a slow, deliberate way whereas a youth-oriented music station might prefer a lighter, brighter tone with more stories about popular culture.
The key criterion for placing a story in your bulletin is how important you think it is. The more important a story is, the higher it should go in your bulletin, but it should be remembered that you are dealing with news items of the day, things which are happening that very moment and you cannot repeat yesterday’s or last week’s news.