The inverted pyramid is a way to discribe the basic structure of a news story. The most important information in a news story is at the beginning (or the top of the pyramid). This information generally pertains to "who," "what," "when," "why" and occasionally "where" and "how." The story then moves on to the body where the writer develops the information from the lede and gives details, facts and quotes to support the information in the lede. Conclusions are not always necessary in a news story. The basic news story is designed in this fashion so that the least useful and relevent information (toward the end of the story aka the bottom of the pyramid) can be cut out easily.
Stories written for magazines, such as Newsweek, are composed much more like standard essays using an introduction, main ideas and susequent development, and a conclusion format to structure the information. However, when writing for print media like Newsweek, the introduction is called a lede (just like in a news story) and the conclusion is called a kicker. These stories also include a billboard, or a brief announcement of the main points of the article which is located between the intro/lede and the main points or the story.
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