Ever thought that newspaper stories were getting smaller?

Some interesting graphs and numbers on the length of stories on the front page of the Wall Street Journal. Capsule fact, the wordcount has dropped, 2500 worders are almost nonexistent.

The Wall Street Journal’s page one has long been the standard-bearer for business writing and reporting, at least for newspapers. It took news and turned it into narrative nonfiction, everyday, twice a day, for decades. But Rupert Murdoch made it no secret that he disdained the Journal’s page-one tradition of long-form journalism, and it’s been de-emphasized under his ownership. That’s our qualitative impression, anyway, based on reading the paper, following the tealeaves, and talking to former colleagues.