The Newsprint Lesson: Make Every Word Earn Its Column

Last winter, after a week of swollen inboxes and sprawling proposals, I set every draft in a narrow column. The change was almost embarrassingly plain: claims grew sharper when they had to share a page with their evidence.

Economy is an editorial decision

At the old city desk, an editor once cut a paragraph by asking what it had brought to the room. Not whether it was elegant, but whether it carried new fact, pressure, or consequence. The question remains a good instrument for any page that asks to be read.