The Tendo View

In an excerpt of a recent interview with Josh Tyrangiel, the managing editor of Time.com explains how “long-form” journalism just does not work on the Web. Well, doh! I’m glad the lead editor of Time.com has realized this, but it’s sad that he’s making this statement in 2009.

Tendo was founded 10 years ago on the idea that the Web was changing how media was consumed, and that media executives and journalists like us, who built Web media properties early on, could help marketers use their websites to connect directly to customers by applying the best practices we had learned.

And rule No. 1 when creating content to attract and engage an audience on the Web—proven over and over again by metrics since the early days of Web media—is to remember the media you’re working in.  That means writing in short bursts and using pull-quotes and sidebars; it means creating new scannable content types that allow the reader to get to the point without the work of reading dense, text-heavy pages—or, in print magazine parlance, “long-form journalism.”

I find it both sad and fascinating that a lead editor at one of the oldest and most venerable media brands in our country is coming to this conclusion only now. Perhaps that’s why this same institution is no longer as relevant as it once was?