NEWSPAPERS TOLD: SIMPLIFY, SIMPLIFY
Study Says Journalists Need New Writing Styles That Are Far Less Difficult
J. F. L. MD
BALTIMORE, April 1—American newspapers are dull and difficult to read. But different ways of writing news articles could help newspapers attract some of the readers they have lost.
That was the conclusion of a major study made public here this week at the annual convention of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. The study suggests that newspapers must challenge many of the rules that have governed journalism for generations.
The study was prepared by the group's literacy committee, which was formed partly because of growing alarm that young Americans do not read well enough to understand newspapers and are abandoning them as a result.
The literacy panel challenged the fundamental form used for newspaper articles, the "inverted pyramid," in which the top is heavy with important facts and trails off into less significant information.
