That article links to this[1], by Howard Owens:
"It was then I realized, there is no historic basis for the spelling of a lead as “lede.” “Lede” is an invention of linotype romanticists, not something used in newsrooms of the linotype era."
He says he looked at books from the 1940s - 1980s, "The fact is, in none of the dozens of old journalism books that I have examined — none of them — spell it “lede.” I can’t find the definitive first reference to “lede” but it doesn’t start appearing in journalism books until the 1980s. .. It wasn’t until linotype was disappearing from newsrooms across the nation (late 1970s and into the 1980s), that we start seeing the spelling “lede.”
The safest conclusion, then, is that “lede” is a romantic fiction invented by those who were nostalgic for the passing of the linotype era."
[0] https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/bury-the-lede-...
Burying the lead takes advance if this and puts the important but inconvenient information at the bottom.