I think my favorite part is just how short some of these articles really are once you remove all the nonsense and extra crap in the web pages.
Some articles are actually... 8 sentences. That is it. How on earth does it then take 10 seconds to scroll and parse all the fake inserts to finally realize that this is a poorly researched snippet masquerading as news...
> I think my favorite part is just how short some of there articles are...
In an attempt to enjoy this effect more broadly, I have Reader Mode set to enabled by default on Safari mobile.
On Firefox desktop I often use the Reader View button on news stories. There is an extension to enable this by default, but I have a hard time trusting browser add-ons.
This is also a great way to work around many paywalls, as when reader mode is on by default, it kicks in before the JavaScript that throws up the paywall.
It’s reasonable to have short articles in a newspaper, where you want to fit in a bunch of short factual stories, or on a newswire where you just want to quickly send out some facts before competitors. In the former case you just put lots of stories on one page. In the latter case, it’s often expected to be short.
I guess a lot of the BS filler text is added just so they can fit more ads around the text, huh? The goal for online publications isn't to inform you and save you time... It's to make you click on ads. They want to have you see as many ads as possible, and make sure that you stay on the page as long as possible. If the news article was just a one-paragraph snippet, you couldn't fit 8 ads on the page, it would look absolutely laughable.
A newspaper or news website would source most of their journalism from Reuters or Associated Press, and then fluff it up to fit their editorial stance.
The same articles would seem longer in print because they're formatted in such narrow columns, wrapping around images. There's some thought that goes into the layout.
Of course, the internet breaks that particular illusion. And I'm sure that if a marketing department could do to their printed paper what they do to their website, design and readability be damned, they would jump at the chance.
Some articles are actually... 8 sentences. That is it. How on earth does it then take 10 seconds to scroll and parse all the fake inserts to finally realize that this is a poorly researched snippet masquerading as news...