Do readers like shorter or longer stories? Editors continually ponder that question, and various surveys have influenced papers to try different approaches to keep the interest of their readers.
The success of USA Today led newspapers all over North America to adopt the shorter-story approach and redesign their pages to have colorful graphics, fact boxes and so on.
Now some studies are saying the use of stories and design of the pages are for the convenience of the papers, not for the readers, a writing coach for the Ottawa Citizen told women journalists recently in Halifax.
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Lynn McAuley, who has worked as a sports editor, columnist and feature writer, said the emphasis of news has changed.
Journalists have moved away from story-telling.
Papers have rules about no “jumping” (the continuing of stories from one page to another.) The journalists believe this is for the convenience of the readers.
Past surveys have readers saying they don’t have time to read.
In some cases this is true, McAuley said, but it can also mean the journalists are not writing compelling stories.
The evidence? Magazine and book sales are increasing, and in some cases setting records.
“Where the story-telling has disappeared is from the pages of newspapers,” she said.
Pages are designed to save people time, but if stories were compellingly written, then the readers would stay with the story.
“Are we making emotional connections with the readers, and giving them full characters?” she asked.
The oral story-telling tradition is successful because it does that.
Papers give readers the end of stories, but not the stories themselves.
“We write and structure stories for our convenience,” rather than for the interest of the readers, she said.
