Attempted robbery, good sort of news? (8)
I believe the answer is:
breaking
'sort of news?' is the definition.
(breaking news)
'attempted robbery good' is the wordplay.
'attempted robbery' becomes 'break-in' (breaking into a property).
'good' becomes 'g' (abbreviation).
'breakin'+'g'='BREAKING'
(Other definitions for breaking that I've seen before include "Going first at snooker" , "Fracturing" , "falling apart" , "Interrupting" .)