讲故事与叙事2020talkingbiznews.com
彭博社总编辑：我们发表了太多平庸冗长的深度报道
Bloomberg chief editor: We publish too many mediocre and long enterprise stories
导读
彭博社总编辑米克尔思韦特在内部备忘录中承认，他们发表了太多平庸而冗长的'企业报道'，即篇幅长、但信息价值低的稿子。这条帖子下的讨论把问题剖析得更具体：长文如何被注水、记者该写读者'想看'的还是'需要看'的。写作者可以借此检查自己的稿子：长度是否有信息量支撑。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
先问一句'这个故事真的值得写这么长吗'：把稿子砍到只剩能推进主题的段落，删掉不影响结论的背景和轶事。
- 02
开头不要用一个诱人的悬念骗读者读下去，却把答案拖到第十页；如果是问答式结构，就尽早给出核心答案。
- 03
区分读者'想看'和'需要看'：点击率高的选题未必重要，重要的选题要用更强的叙事把读者拉进来，而不是放弃它。
- 04
把长度当作成本：读者花在长文上的时间要和获得的信息量成正比，否则他们会转去读更短、更密的报道。
HN 评论精选
长文注水的典型结构：悬念标题、绕圈的铺垫、大段无关人物轶事，真正的答案却在最后两句话。
这位总编说到了点子上，我没想到会从他嘴里听到这种话。这类网络媒体常见的套路是：一个标题党标题（'一个普通人如何用一支笔黑进华尔街'）；一页有趣的铺垫但不回答标题里的问题；十页没用的废话和编造的采访，讲这人的童年、他妈妈爱吃薯条、他1992年遇到谁、生了几个孩子；最后才用一两句话给出真正简单直接的答案——他被华尔街雇去当清洁工，然后……
greatgib查看英文原文
The point of the chief editor is so true that I'm surprised to read that from them. I have noticed that a lot of times with this kind of web media. - You have a clickbait title like this: "How a normal guy managed to hack WallStreet with a simple pen" - Then, you have one page of interesting introduction on the topic but without the reply to the title question. "In november 2018, WallStreet was busy with the introduction of xxxx, and suddenly a problem happened, everything went black. To understand, wallstreet works with computers that are connected with a modern system... 300 words ... and on that cold night of the 23 nov 2020, one man John Crowford destroyed all of that." - Then you have 10 pages of useless crap and fake intervews about the childhood of the guy and a lot of things that are not interesting, and not related to the subject. "His mother was blond, she liked to eat fries. But despite that, John Crowford liked to eat popcorn. So much that his friend reported that, one time, he stayed at a movie theater for a whole day just to eat popcorns ... Studies at the yyy school were ok, but he followed them without passion until he met Carolinas Brocolis a hot night of summer 1992. Together they got 3 kids ... he was not supposed to live in New York as he was born in California, but he found a job there, ..." - And then, you finally have the explanation that is, most of the time, short and straightforward. "So, he was hired as a Janitor in Wall Street, and accidentally put his pen inside the holes of a power plug, resulting in a major power failure. THE END" After reading such a story, either you did skip to the end directly, or you are very angry to have lost so much time reading useless things.
迎合读者想读的内容会牺牲读者需要读的重要选题，推荐算法和点击量考核让这个问题更严重。
这份备忘录点出了我最近注意到的问题：公众在争论媒体的正当性和有效性。这位总编实际上是在让手下写读者想读的东西。但'读者一直想读的'和'读者可能需要读的'是两回事。比如，如果人们只读自己想读的，一个可能枯燥但重要的丑闻——比如天主教会的性侵丑闻——会有多少人真正感兴趣？它影响是全球性的，却与国内政治斗争或恐怖主义这类卖得动的话题无关。现在问题更严重：新闻不再是一份大报，订阅者也许不会读完每一篇，但所有报道都在眼前；而当每个人都能在网站上单篇挑选、管理层又要求记者盯着点击量时，情况就更是如此。
save_ferris查看英文原文
This memo highlights a problem that I’ve noticed recently as the public debates the legitimacy and effectiveness of the media. This chief editor is basically telling his people to write what readers want to read. But there’s a difference between what readers always want to read and what may be necessary to read. For example, if people only read what they wanted to read, how many people would really take interest in a possibly boring but important scandal? The Catholic Church sex abuse scandal comes to mind. It’s impact was global, but it’s not really related to domestic political battles or terrorism or whatever else really sells in the media these days. The problem is worse now because news isn’t sold as a broadsheet anymore, where subscribers might not read everything in an issue, but eyes are on all of the stories. Is that the case when everyone gets to pick a la carte from a website, especially when management like this is telling reporters to focus on what gets the most clicks?
按'单位阅读时间的信息回报'选读物，也是一种写作标准的参考。
《经济学人》的文章通常更值得我花时间。我最早是高中老师介绍这本杂志的，后来发现很多人没有这个运气。
dade_查看英文原文
Articles in The Economist are usually a better investment of my time. I was originally introduced to the magazine by a teacher in high school, but I've come to learn that many other people weren't as fortunate. https://www.economist.com/
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