Sublime

Atwater, trained originally as a background man for news dailies, constructed his own WITW pieces by pouring into his notebooks and word processor an enormous waterfall of prose which was then filtered more and more closely down to 400 words of commercial sediment.

He warned the students against any effort by an editor to inject his own point of view into a writer’s work or to try to make him something other than what he is.

‘You’re our longest-serving contributor,’ said Carleton, flinching at the bang. ‘Our most admired. Indeed I should say our most popular.’ I’m beginning to speak like him, he thought: Thomas Hart is catching, that’s the trouble. ‘I’ve often heard it said that it’s a consolation – that’s the general feeling, as I said to the board – to wake on Thursd

The answer was obvious: Make news and information not just smart, but as clean and efficient as possible. Get rid of unnecessary noise—autoplay videos, pop-up ads, unnecessary words—and write how our brains want to consume. And build it for a smartphone.

‘Broadcasting’, he said, ‘is the control of suspense.

there is no substitute for a clear editorial point of view and an analysis of the gap you are seeking to fill in your particular news ecosystem. That analysis should cover what is missing that you intend to supply as well as what is not, or is at least beyond your scope.