Categories: OLD Media Moves

Why Quartz focuses on short, and long articles

Quartz, the business news site from The Atlantic, writes stories less than 500 words or very long stories, says editor in chief Kevin Delaney.

Sarah Marshall of Journalism.co.uk writes, “At the Digital Editors’ Network event taking place at News UK this afternoon, Kevin Delaney suggested that news publishers ditch medium-length articles. ‘Too much reporting is 700-word articles that everyone else has got,’ he said.

“Delaney explained how Quartz, which launched a year ago, focuses on stories that are less than 500 words, as well as longer, analytical features.

“Appearing via videolink from New York, Delaney showed a graph of the Quartz U-shaped curve.

“‘People read short, fast content on the web’, he said, and also long-form, analytical pieces. Articles of between 500 and 800 words are too long to be sharable, and too short to be in-depth, he said.

“Delaney, who used to be managing editor of WSJ.com, said if he went back into mainstream media he would take the Quartz approach.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.

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