I am still pissed about their story on Elemental Technologies.
Bloomberg chief editor: We publish too many mediocre and long enterprise stories
81–90 of 206 posts
Re: Bloomberg chief editor: We publish too many mediocre and long enterprise stories
#82The 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 introduc…
Ive noticed the clickfarm agglomerated story style has infected what is supposed to be professional journalism.
Some hallmarks of this style include
- paragraphs are one sentence long
- there isnt so much an order or train of thought, just a vomit of quotes
- implying random quotes equate some kind of consensus or prevailing sentiment in group thought
- an article that isnt anything more than the bunch of embedded quotes
- a summary of the article at the beginning, that is really just four of the "paragraphs" below regurgitated up top. makes it really annoying, forcing you to read entire "paragraphs" twice.
- an almost nonsequituresque repetitiveness, where half way through an article it almost starts over with slightly different words. as if the author forgot they already mentioned things, or decided to copy the article again to both trick people who scroll half way down an article, and to meet a word count.
- extremely poor formatting, making it difficult to distinguish the article from the summary, the image quotes, ads for other articles.
- articles that assume the reader has absolutely no domain knowledge, and spend half their words defining basic things.
- and thats all with an ad blocker on, I imagine the experience is 10x worse without one.
Business insider has been a big offender, a place that was already clickbait, but has devolved into something even worse. It's as if BI decided the daily mail was the best exemplar to emulate. Its a strange mix of DailyMail, Buzzfeed, and Vox. Something that gives the illusion of being an explainer, a listicle, and reporting at the same time. I am honestly shocked they purposely employ people with this writing style, it makes me want to be the change I want to see in the world and drop everything and get a job writing better journalism, just to try and displace some of the cruft. Their "editors" are doing absolutely nothing to take quote vomit and shape it into something coherent.
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/day-trader-m...
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/wirecard-sto...
This article is a great example of a weird listical, where the quotes themselves are the h1 bold headline and the body of the paragraph is just a picture of the person that adds nothing to the story. But not consistently, by the last one, the header is just a header, and the quote is the body. https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/day-trading-...
(Should listicle/listical look like popsicle or nautical.)
Re: Bloomberg chief editor: We publish too many mediocre and long enterprise stories
#83The 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 introduc…
I wonder if someone will start an enterprising site that summarizes all these articles and then sells advertising. Sort of a Cliff's Notes version.
Re: Bloomberg chief editor: We publish too many mediocre and long enterprise stories
#84Ulysses journalism, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23780937
Re: Bloomberg chief editor: We publish too many mediocre and long enterprise stories
#85[deleted]
Re: Bloomberg chief editor: We publish too many mediocre and long enterprise stories
#86The 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 introduc…
This is merely a consequence of SEO. Have you tried searching for recipes? It's absolutely miserable. I don't need irrelevant life stories-- show me the ingredient list and instructions.
I use the copymethat browser plugin to strip everything but the recipe out of the page - I HIGHLY recommend it.
Re: Bloomberg chief editor: We publish too many mediocre and long enterprise stories
#87A lot of good writing advice in this memo: The key person to think about is the reader. People generally read only one screen and SELDOM read more than two screens. (A screen typically is around 300 words.) A long story on a complicated topic can save readers time if it replaces the need to read a lot of short ones. Readers either want to have a quick piece of information or something that justifies the longer read.…
And, if it's going to be 900 words, then in the first 400, you'd better make it clear that you've got 900 words that are actually worth my time to read. You make it clear, not by telling me that you've got something relevant to say, but by demonstrating it.
Re: Bloomberg chief editor: We publish too many mediocre and long enterprise stories
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some bloggers (well gruber at least) still bring this up any time they newly cite Bloomberg. It does defy explanation that the publication has not been able to offer proof of the claims from that article or simply rescind it.
They should continue to bring it up, every time, until the story is rescinded.
Bizarre thought just hit me.
What if they are correct, and stumbled onto the same trail the FBI has, and the FBI gave them an order to not discuss it anymore due to a pending investigation with national security repercussions?
Given how BB has just walked away from this article - no rescinding, no nothing, I think it's a possibility.
Re: Bloomberg chief editor: We publish too many mediocre and long enterprise stories
#89The 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 introduc…
It's amazing that the amount of news that happens in the world every day always just exactly fits the newspaper.
Jerry Seinfeld
Re: Bloomberg chief editor: We publish too many mediocre and long enterprise stories
#90The 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 introduc…
This is merely a consequence of SEO. Have you tried searching for recipes? It's absolutely miserable. I don't need irrelevant life stories-- show me the ingredient list and instructions.
All that is there for SEO? I’ve been wondering why this new format is so ubiquitous.