Ten years ago, the Los Angeles Times had 1,776 stories exceeding 2,000 words. Last year, it had 256, Dean Starkman writes at CJR. Of four big papers, only the New York Times bucked the trend. Does it matter? Starkman thinks so: "No one equates story-length with quality. Let’s start with that concession. But still. Story-length is hardly meaningless when you consider what it takes to explain complex problems, like say, the financial crisis, to the broader public."
