It is all about our great desired to be informed, that mobile platform in our hand, and consuming information throughout the day in the midst of interruptions, alerts and pings. We are all subjected to these phenomena, consuming content on our phonesin quick, frequent bursts, capitalizing on those three minutes before the next meeting, or between the “socializing” we also do quickly on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest.
What’s an editor to do?
When it comes to mobile: short takes, atomic bites, whatever you wish to call them, are the answer. Indeed, we all read long, too, but only after we have been seduced or intrigued by a short and sweet summary.
“Mobile experiences fill the gaps while we wait. Nobody wants to wait while they wait,” explains Mike Krieger, co-founder of Instagram.
We all know that we consume shorter content faster and better.
How short is short?
That is the question. It should be short enough to get us interested in content, but not so short that we will not get the highlights of the story.
My friend and Poynter colleague, Dr. Roy Peter Clark, writing coach to at least two generations of journalists, says it eloquently in his new book, ‘How to Write Short: Word Craft for Fast Times’:
“In the digital age, short writing is king. We need more good short writing — the kind that makes us stop, read, and think — in an accelerating world. A time-starved culture bloated with information hungers for the lean, clean, simple, and direct. Such is our appetite for short writing that not only do our long stories seem too long, but our short stories feel too long as well.”
Who gets it right?
Some of my favorite news apps are getting it right, but there is NOT just one style of writing short, as we can see in some of these mobile editions.
Yahoos News Digest
About two paragraphs, beefy enough to give us a good idea of the story, but not too long.
BBC News
Offers about six items that are key points of breaking news stories. Done in outline form. Informative and concise.
The Economist-Espresso
Few stories with headlines in the provocative style of The Economist. A favorite of mine since it came out recently.
Breaking News
Summaries could be as short as one sentence of 3 lines, or as long as 8-10 lines. That information suffices most of the time. If not, there is a link to read more.
Writing short, securing space in the busy schedules of people in this era of the journalism of interruptions is the way to go with mobile platforms. Dr. Roy Peter Clark agrees:
“Toto, we are not in Kansas anymore. In fact, we’re soaring high above Oz, looking down like a Google Earth search. We’re high on technology, but adrift in a jet stream of information. All the more reason to write short — and well.”