At a recent Society of News Design conference in New York, someone from Axios, that outlet that launched in 2017 and stays true to its goal of “making smart people smarter”, gave a presentation and I understand that the term “smart brevity” was one of the speaker’s main points.

I admit I had never heard the catchy phrase before, although I swear that it is smart brevity that I have been discussing for some years now at my workshops and conferences. It is not easy to be smart and brief at the same time. It is, however, a must to be both when dealing with the way we present news on mobile devices such as the smartphone.

I get smart brevity often from those push notifications and alerts from The New York Times, such as this one recently:

Smart brevity usually aims at two objectives:

To communicate the contents of a story faster.
To seduce us into wanting more beyond the brief.

It’s been easier for a new organization like Axios to carry this out, as there is no legacy, as have traditional organizations where brevity sometimes is equated to a lesser form of journalism, to a dumbing down of the information.

When Axios offers us smart brevity, it makes it smart enough that it would be acceptable to skip reading the full story. Although, in my experience, in many cases I become curious and want to read more.

For Axios, smart brevity also means sophisticated publishing of the brief, with such additions as “what it means” or “Why you should care”. Readers today appreciate such alerts. Take a look here:

There is much to say about smart brevity. And a question we should ask ourselves: While the operating manual in our newsroom may be different from that Axios’ team, what are we doing as part of our projects or new product development to achieve smart brevity?

I know I will be asking my clients that question, while also asking it myself as we embark into new projects. Don’t wait for a project briefing to suggest smart brevity, simply make it part of the process.