What Do Readers Really Want? Respect   

And shorter stories about redheads...

Picked up my local paper the other day and the centerpiece of the features section was a story about the fact that redheads were suddenly "hot." Now, my dad has red hair, my eldest daughter has red hair, and I spent much of my youth nurturing crushes on freckle-faced girls with red hair, so despite the silly premise I rose to the bait.

The story started out well enough, but when I followed it inside my heart sank. The jump occupied two-thirds of a page. According to Lexis-Nexis, it was 3,005 words long, or about 80 column-inches.

Even Rapunzel didn't let down that much red hair.

This is awards season for the news industry. Honoring the profession's best work inspires us and reminds us of the excellence we're capable of. But most of what we produce day in and day out is anything but prize caliber. Too much of it is pedestrian or dull or arrogantly overlong. So maybe we should be passing out medals not to ourselves but to the real heroes--the news consumers who keep coming back to us, ever hopeful, no matter what we inflict on them.

Newspaper readers have their own needs, their own "inverted pyramid" of priorities, if you will.

First, they want to know what of genuine importance happened yesterday--the headlines, the big stuff.

Then they want more specific and personalized kinds of information--how their stocks fared, how their fantasy league players did, what decisions their school board made, what's on television tonight.

Next, at least for a lot of people, they want the ads and coupons.

Then they might want perspective--the columns, news analysis, editorials.

Then they might want some humor or surprises. To that rather elemental list I would add the most important thing of all: Readers would like some respect--for their time, for their intelligence, even for their hands which, after all our alleged technological advances, we're still smudging.

If accommodating so many needs is a challenge, I would argue that it's also an unprecedented opportunity. Readers are practically begging journalists to be more inventive. We should seize this opportunity to re-examine how we approach everything we do, starting with how and what we write.

On that last point, some thoughts.

Trend stories: These are maybe the most overused and badly done pieces we do, in no small part because as stories their structure is inherently artificial. They tend to ramble on with no end in sight, like Leonard Cohen songs. Sometimes this is mere self-indulgence, but sometimes it's the result of the writer feeling he has to cram in lots of data and opinions to support the premise. But you know what? If my newspaper tells me something is a trend, I tend to believe it. So don't give me 50 inches on the surge in local brewpubs. Give me 15 inches of overview--and then tell me 10 good places where I can taste for myself.

Story length: Every story has an optimal length, and usually that length is shorter than what gets printed in the paper. Tighten up the boilerplate stuff in order to save the length for where it's really needed, which is to say in stories with a strong narrative. A paper should offer readers at least one crackling read a day, maybe two or three on Sunday. But make sure they're real stories, with interesting characters, a clear narrative line, conflict and resolution. Give me one of those and I'll follow it anywhere, even over weeks if you are brave enough to serialize it.

Humanity and humor: Our newspapers, like our lives, could use a lot more of these qualities. But you need shoe leather, not a phone, to find them.

Use of quotation: Quotes are among the most powerful weapons in the writer's arsenal, and among the most abused. Only when a character speaks is there no intermediary between subject and reader, which makes quotation a remarkably effective (and efficient) way of conveying character and texture. But be judicious; use quotes that actually say something. Nine out of 10 newspaper quotes are functioning like Hamburger Helper--stretching too little meat--or are included in the story simply to prove the writer actually talked to someone.

Use of anecdote: An anecdote, like a quote, should reveal. Describing how Matinee Idol nibbled on a salad while he spent his allotted 12 press-junket minutes talking to you is not an anecdote. Describing how he berated the waiter for bringing sweetened instead of unsweetened tea is an anecdote.