What makes readers reach the end of a 3,000-word piece? The trick is to make your opening paragraph count
Can time-consuming longform articles compete with quick-hit articles today? Recent analysis by the American Press Institute has found they can, in fact longform articles tend to receive a greater number of views and shares than non-longform articles.
But how do you master the craft? In an article on Ijnet, freelance journalist Christiana Bedei spoke to Brendan Spiegel, co-founder and editor, Narratively, and Natalie Orenstein, reporter, Berkleyside - also an award-winning longform storytelling reporter - about how to hold a readers' attention until the end of a longer article.
Spiegel emphasised the need to grab your readers' interest in the first few sentences.
"In a movie, the storyteller maybe has 30 minutes or so to get the viewer interested before they turn it off and watch something else. With a podcast, maybe you have five minutes. With an online article, you have one paragraph, max."
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