Insights
Practical notes and examples connected to business writing.
Latest post
A workshop we do for our clients from time to time focuses on helping them understand how journalists make decisions on what is newsworthy and judge the relative weight they should give to the stories they run. When you read a news website or watch the evening news, it seems as though the stories are presented effortlessly in order of importance.
At The Australian Financial Review there used to be a cherished tradition. For every major news event a small group of reporters and section editors would retreat to a room with a whiteboard and hammer out a dozen angles on the story—who did it affect, who wins, what happens next, what did this person think, can we interview so-and-so and on and on.
If you read something that is well written, you understand it first time around. When it is poorly written, you find yourself re-reading sentences. In the media and in business, this mostly means short sentences using simple and accurate words.
What is quality content? The answer is always in the eye of the beholder. An economics boffin will judge quality content differently to a sports lover or a political junky.
Jim Stynes OAM was an Irish footballer who converted to AFL, became one of the great players of his era and went on to be twice named Victorian of the year for his charity work. He died tragically of cancer in March 2012, just 45 years old.
Aylmer Anderson has begun producing a fortnightly “newsletter” based on what we know about content. It’s short and hopefully useful. Each fortnight we will also include a website we like, or a comment we enjoyed, or a bigger piece that’s worth thinking about.
