SB Nation pulls Daniel Holtzclaw longform piece

[JackReacher]

If you're a terrible manager, sure.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

On the Deadspin piece overall:

It got a little think-piecy at the end. I'd save that for another standalone post, after all is said and done.

It is awfully amusing the anti-longform piece clocked in at 3,200 words.

 

[JackReacher]

http://gawker.com/how-long-should-a...m_source=gawker_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

 

[CD Boogie]

"Even in this age of fetishized sprawling longform, a 10,000-word piece is likelier to have been diligently edited than a 5,000-word one. Five thousand words is the piece you didn't like or care about enough to cut down to 3,800."

Whatever, Scocca, ya insufferable twit. In a piece criticizing the idea of hitting word benchmarks, he's making a blanket statement about what you can expect at certain benchmarks.

 

[Songbird]

http://gawker.com/how-long-should-a...m_source=gawker_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

It is a pretty funny graphic though.

 

[JackReacher]

From the comments section....

"If you want your audience to print out your epic article and read it piece while sitting on a toilet, a bar stool, or in bed during a sleepless night then 4,000-7,000 words is fine. Anything more and the author is basically saying, "Shut up, I'm trying to win forking awards!"

 

[typefitter]

I've been thinking about this a bunch tonight. It all seems very off to me. About the lightest thing I can say is, the distribution of blame seems unevenly weighted.

As for this length nonsense, Jesus Christ. Some 400-w0rd stories suck, some are fine, and some are great. Some 4,000-word stories suck, some are fine, and some are great. Some 12,000-word stories suck, some are fine, and some are great. Same with 90-minute movies and 3-hour movies. Same with two-minute punk-rock songs and nine-minute anthems. Length is too often confused with substance, and many stories could be shorter. But I still think of John Sack's "M" in my sleep, and it was 33,000 words.

 

[Moderator1]

I'm still trying to figure out where I can travel for TWO DAYS and be totally unreachable. Sounds kind of glorious.
TO THE MOON ALICE!!

 

[Doc Holliday]

Maybe I'm missing something, but part of this breakdown at SBNation looks, sounds and smells like there was some gender and racial discrimination at play here.

Bergeron is a black female while Floyd and Stout are white males. In Bergeron's last-ditch attempt to have the story killed, Floyd and Stout refused to listen to her during a conference call, got in a heated argument and hung up on her. It is plausible they believed themselves less emotionally attached to the story's subject matter and her to be over-reacting, so they ignored her objections and published the story.

 

[BDC99]

Maybe I'm missing something, but part of this breakdown at SBNation looks, sounds and smells like there was some gender and racial discrimination at play here.

Bergeron is a black female while Floyd and Stout are white males. In Bergeron's last-ditch attempt to have the story killed, Floyd and Stout refused to listen to her during a conference call, got in a heated argument and hung up on her. It is plausible they believed themselves less emotionally attached to the story's subject matter and her to be over-reacting, so they ignored her objections and published the story.

Agreed. I just watched the recent episode of the new OJ series, and a scene showed a vaguely similar disconnect. Shapiro to Cochran: "You know how these people think ..."

 

[jr/shotglass]

From the Deadspin article, the most articulate statement I've seen about longform for longform's sake.

Longform is a variant of feature writing—a branding strategy, really—that confuses a secondary indicator (length) for the thing itself (quality).

 

[Dick Whitman]

Length isn't the problem. Writerly length can be. The New Yorker runs long form pieces every week. They simply call them articles. No self-aggrandizement necessary.