Last Updated: May 26, 1999
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Good writing: Examples and ideas
on coaching
Winning the space game in news writing
Being the ‘nice editor’ by telling reporters to ‘write
as long as they want’ hurts them by not giving them limits and hurts the
editor with late, long stories
By Don Fry
Someone once asked Robert Frost why he never wrote free verse. He responded
with a question: "Why don’t you play tennis without a net?" Limits make
the game.
The art of news writing involves fitting information into space determined
by someone else. The sloppy method means writing long and having other
people whack it back without reading, the only virtue of the antiquated
inverted pyramid, which takes control of the information away from the
person who knows it best. Any newspaper chopping stories from the bottom
without reading in the computer age is grossly disorganized.
The intelligent method, which serves the readers, lets the person with
the best information (the reporter) select what goes into the space. Such
information design requires the writer to know the space available.
Reporters who have a length in mind when they type will turn in stories
approximately that length, or a little longer, maybe five to ten percent
more. They select their materials and design a structure to fit the space.
They’ll probably turn in their stories on time and finished.
Reporters who don’t have a length in mind will write long, both in space
and time. They lack a frame to design in, so they just keep typing until
they run out of time. They’re likely to turn in an unfinished story late
and long.
Coaching editors help their reporters by negotiating length between
the reporting and the typing. Reporters base their space pitches on how
much length they need to explain things to readers. Explanation justifies
expansion, but the default remains short.
Editors base their space negotiations on the amount of space available,
the number of stories vying for it, and the likely demands of the news.
Some desk editors don’t see negotiating space as part of their job.
They just pour stories onto the copy editors or layout desks, leaving the
shaping to someone else. They lose control of the news agenda and treatment
by relinquishing responsibility downstream. The next day, they get blamed
for nonsense stories that passed through them.
Some editors say they cannot negotiate story length because they don’t
know the space. They have insufficient information about the space until
the dummy arrives from advertising.
A city editor at a large daily told me he couldn’t know the space available
until eight o’clock at night. His managing editor, who was also present,
replied that he knew the space two days ahead. I suggested they chat.
In many papers, the ad department doesn’t release the dummy early because
nobody ever asked them to. Most ad directors can give a ballpark figure
early in the cycle, or at least a heads-up when space is very long or very
tight.
Some editors play good guy and put no space limits on their reporters,
or worse, favor their favorites with no restrictions. "Take all the space
you want," or "Give it what you think it’s worth" sounds like a favor to
the writer, who then turns in the story long and late and perhaps unrevised,
and gets it chopped by the copy desk. The good-guy editor wonders why his
reporters write so diffusely when he treats them so well.
Negotiating space only works if both parties follow up. First of all,
all space agreements remain tentative. If the mayor dies, every story in
the paper will drop to half length, and the desk editor should so advise,
letting the reporters do the designing.
If reporters try for just a little more room by turning the story in
just a little long, the editor should give it back for trimming by the
writer. Trim it yourself, and every story from then on will come in long.
Remember: in newsrooms, length equals status, status that must be earned
by the artful use of space.
Fry, an affiliate of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, is
an independent writing coach in St. Petersburg, Fla. Call him at 813/866-3460.
