The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 3 plus 3 plus 9 letter word HIT THE HEADLINES
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
H
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T
T
H
E
H
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A
D
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More clues leading to the result HIT THE HEADLINES
- Become famous — assault school principal, getting punishment
- Become prominent making banners?
- Popular verse about teacher got top press billing
- Struck senior teacher – row’s made the papers
- Land knockout punch and further punishment to make the news
- Punishment given after assault: article by school principal became prominent in the news
- Make the front cover of Punch with article on principal policies
- Struck senior teacher - row's made the papers
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "to make the news" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case to make the news = hit the headlines.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.