Below are some of my favorite stories written as a journalist for various publications, last updated in 2009. A PDF of recent copywriting samples is also available. Please email me at daryl@daryllang.com to request access. Please also see my resume and my blog about copywriting, Breaking Copy.
Chaotic and shocking—two shot, one killed‹the ambush reduced American soldiers to tears. While the men scrambled for cover and tried to get their wits together, Tim Hetherington followed their movements with two cameras, shooting stills and video at the same time.....
Photo District News, August 2009
A new type of arrangement, a blend of paparazzi, celebrity portraiture and public relations, has become a small but steady business for some photo agencies. Call them the payolarazzi. As photo prices reach unheard-of heights, the images that readers see are increasingly subject to manipulation and spin....
Photo District News, September 2006
This story was part of a magazine issue that won a 2007 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award for Best Single Issue.
Trucker Simmie Bowden leaves the Pilot in Middlesex Township with an armful of essential items. He carries a bucket-sized drink cup filled with water, a steel mug of coffee, three chocolate muffins, some new work gloves and a six-pack of wool socks. Bowden, who lives in Louisiana, is hauling a load of plastic pipe to Columbus, Ohio. "Coffee and water. I got my sweetener," he says as he climbs into his rig. "Time to ride." It's 2:10 a.m....
The Carlisle Sentinel, January 20, 2002
This story won a 2001 Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors Award: First place for business reporting, newspapers under 20,000 circulation.
At least 19 people were arrested early yesterday when about 4,000 students stormed the streets after the Penn State basketball team lost to Temple in the NCAA tournament. As the game was ending shortly before midnight Friday, thousands of people massed in an area of student apartment buildings near the University Park campus, cheering "We are Penn State!" Some threw beer bottles, lit firecrackers and toppled street signs. Police used pepper spray repeatedly to clear people from the sidewalks....
The Harrisburg Patriot-News, March 25, 2001
This story won fourth place in the spot news category of the 2000-2001 Hearst Journalism Awards Program.
Too Close is a five-month-old Holstein. He's a healthy calf who will gladly take a break from munching on hay to have a visitor scratch his ears. And he seems blissfully unaware that he has no heart. About three weeks ago, Penn State researchers at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center took out Too Close's heart and replaced it with a machine....
The Daily Collegian, November 30, 2000
This story won first place in the feature story category of the 2001 Pennsylvania Newspapers Association Collegiate Keystone Awards.