Got a While? She’s Got a Story to Tell You

The reader came out of his bedroom, his fleece robe warding off the early morning chill. Rubbing sleep from his eyes, he made his way to the front door, slippers shuffling across the bare wooden floor. He punched the code to turn off the security alarm, opened the door and grabbed his newspaper from the doorstep.

He glanced at the clock on the kitchen wall and calculated the time he would have before putting himself into a high-gear race to the office--a comfortable 30 minutes. The switch on the coffeemaker beckoned and, flicking it on, he sat down at the breakfast table to begin the most important part of his morning ritual: reading the Los Angeles Times.

With the smell of brewing coffee wafting through the house, his eyes scanned the front page before settling on a story whose headline attracted his attention. And so he started to read--and read and read. What is this story about? he wondered, growing gradually more irritated as he got to the line telling him to go to Page A14 without knowing if it was worth reading on. Decision time. So few minutes and so much to read. His eyes glanced at the rest of the front page, but then he relented, deciding to stick with the story and follow it to where it “jumped” inside the paper.

Then, yes! There they were, those few precious words that told what the story was really about. Little did he know that at that very moment, all across the Southland, countless readers were asking themselves the same question: “Why can’t they just get to the point of the story right away?”

Why, indeed. Here’s another way to say what just took me 278 words: Readers dislike stories that take too long to get to the facts.

Storytelling introductions--what journalists call anecdotal leads--can be a compelling way to start feature stories, but too often reporters use the device in news stories when readers want them to get right to the point.

One 40-year subscriber recently complained about “the new, more chatty style that requires the reader to get through a couple of paragraphs before discovering what the article really is about. . . . It is a time-waster.”

Years ago, all stories were written in the shape of an inverted pyramid, with the most important information at the top. Thus, if a story had to be trimmed, the least important information would be cut from the bottom. The reader could also get the gist quickly and decide whether to read more. The basic rule was to write the opening paragraph by answering questions a reader wants to know immediately--the old “who, what, when, where, why and how” format.

In the mid-’60s, a kind of writing called “new journalism”--journalism written like a short story--became very popular in the New York Herald Tribune and other newspapers as well as in magazines. Some well-known “new journalists” were Jimmy Breslin, Gay Talese and Tom Wolfe. Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood” is a good example of journalism written like a novel.

In the mid-’70s, Times editors wanted to experiment with this literary form. They hired stylish writers who could bring it to the front page, once the domain solely of “straight” news stories. These writers abandoned the old pyramid and who-what formats and wrote to spin a compelling tale. Readers responded favorably, and the practice flourished.

The Times is not the only paper that liberally uses anecdotes in the opening paragraphs of Page 1 stories to pique reader interest. The Wall Street Journal is known for its front-page feature, and such stories appear regularly on Page 1 of the New York Times. The cover pages of the Los Angeles Times’ Sports, Business and local news sections have gone the same way. But the anecdotal start has plainly become overused, especially in news stories, which too often begin with a long windup and no pitch.

One reader stated his belief that “your writers are paid by the word.” They are not. He suggested: “Perhaps a brief summary of the facts could precede the article.” And another cited a Page 1 story whose opening paragraph noted the profound impact of “a single utterance” of Gov. George W. Bush but did not quote the utterance until the 20th paragraph.

Some readers see bias in storytelling leads, believing they camouflage the writer’s personal views. They want the facts, first and foremost, particularly in news stories, and not a reporter’s analysis. Although many journalists agree with readers that the form is overused--one of my colleagues in an in-house newsletter admonished reporters to limit such writing--no one really wants to write the obituary of literary journalism. Indeed, some of The Times’ best-read stories are of that genre.

Yet news stories should not start with anecdotes, and when reporters do use them to open feature stories, they should get to the point more quickly. Which is all I have to say.