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| The Inverted Pyramid by the Air Force Departmental Publishing Office |
Managing a business, allocating capital in a portfolio, or creating a personal development plan, all depend upon a reasonable forecast of future social and economic conditions. Keeping up-to-date on the current news is an essential part of forecasting. The challenge is following the news in a reasonable amount of time each day.
The secret to efficient news consumption is to seek out sources that employ the inverted pyramid style and include the most important information in the opening paragraph. Journalists are trained to include the who, what, why, when, where and how in the opening sentences. This allows the reader to grasp the most important news in a single glance and decide whether or not to read more. Since the online versions of most major newspapers display the headline and the opening sentence of each article on their home page, they make it easy to browse everything quickly.
When opening a story to learn more, the lead paragraph will be followed by other important details with the most important items first. As soon as you feel you understand the what you need, you can stop reading. The final paragraphs will be general and background material. In many cases, you will already be familiar with the background information and do not need to read it again.
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| Front Page of the New York Times Online |
The inverted pyramid style used by major newspapers is in stark contrast to the hook and delay process used by most television news broadcasts. These broadcasts start with a teaser that they will include an important insight later in the broadcast then proceed to something completely different. Continuing to watch will waiting for the insight generally results in a frustrating disappointment.
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