The News Worth Reading

 

After posting about Embracing the Inverted Pyramid, I was asked to provide examples of great news sources. Here are the sites that I browse daily.

• The Wall Street Journal - A detailed source for business news in both the United States and Worldwide. 
• The Columbia Missourian - This is my source for local news in Columbia Missouri and the University of Missouri. I believe everyone should subscribe to their local newspaper.
• BBC News- The best English source that I have found for UK and world news. It also frequently reports events in the United States that are not covered elsewhere.
• The Washington Post - Great investigative reporting and information about governmental and political topics.
• The New York Times - A good source of US and world news and my favorite place to keep up-to-date on cultural themes.
• The Economist - The Economist has a daily World in Brief which is an extremely concise and precise overview of world news. The Weekly Edition is an in depth analysis of world events and trends including the probable social and economic results of those events.

Most of these sources require a subscription, but the quality of the information is worth it. 

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Embrace the Inverted Pyramid

 

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.

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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