Hey, journalists, enough with the fancy leads already!

Reporters used to strive for accuracy, brevity, and clarity. Now it's suspense, setting, and back story.

from the June 4, 2007 edition

Page 2 of 2

Page 1 | 2

Journalists used to envision their typical readers as busy commuters on trains or subways, one hand holding a strap, the other a folded newspaper. The snappy lead (who, what, when, where, and sometimes why or how) was essential so that key elements of the story could be grasped quickly if reading was interrupted. Likewise, the "inverted pyramid" ensured that less essential information was always toward the end of the article.

But in the 1960s, journalist and author Tom Wolfe tipped over the inverted pyramid forever when his article about NASCAR driver Junior Johnson introduced a nuisance called New Journalism. Instead of recognizable words, his piece opened with a prolonged roar of engines: "Vroom! Vroom!" and so forth. Given heady stuff like that, it's no wonder that today's journalists have replaced informative leads with "clever" opening hooks.

It can't be easy to reverse such cultural trends, but I hope the journalism profession will do a collective gut check and decide that not all forward motion equals genuine progress. The more rigid formality of old-school values was service oriented and reader friendly without pandering.

Journalists would help many of their readers immensely if they would recognize, as they once did, the clear distinction between hard news (the timely, front-section information) and feature material, the less timely reporting that's more creatively structured.

It might also help if journalists would take sociologist George Herbert Meade's advice more closely to heart and "take the role of the other" – in this case "the other" being their readers. For most of us, the newspaper is mainly a source of well-organized information. Such elements as creative leads and suspense are simply impediments to learning the facts quickly. It's frustrating when the headline makes a promise that the metaphor-laced story is slow to keep.

I fell under the spell of New Journalism when I was a 20-year-old reporter in the Marines. I began turning in copy with "alternative" leads and distracting details. Soon I was standing tall before "the man," whose pithy advice was actually an order: "Ames, just get in, tell 'em what you gotta tell 'em, then get the hell out."

Not as eloquent as journalism icons I.F. Stone or Walter Cronkite, but it's still great advice for reporters when they feel the creative urge tempting them.

• John Edward Ames writes novels and short stories. He worked as reporter in the Marine Corps, writing for base newspapers, including a stint as a stringer for Pacific Stars and Stripes.

1 | Page 2