Add words, reduce readership

Longer stories lose readers faster

Size does matter.

Everything else being equal, your readers would rather read a short piece than a long piece.

Of course, all things are never really equal. Given more space, you can do a better job of making your copy more valuable and entertaining, which encourages readership.

But everything else being equal, your readers prefer a short piece to a long piece.

Here’s evidence that readers want less:

rur_130600_ (7) — **THE SHORT AND THE LONG OF IT** More people read further when the story is shorter rather than longer.

The shorter the story, the more they read.

The longer the story, the more quickly readers stop reading.

That was one of the findings the “father of communication studies,” Wilbur Schramm, made in this 1947 study of newspaper readers.

For the study, he interviewed 1,050 readers about what they read, how much and why they stopped.

He found that:

A nine-paragraph-long story lost three out of 10 readers by the fifth paragraph.
A shorter story lost only two.

Bottom line: Length itself affects readability.

Cut Through the Clutter in PR
How long should your press release or other PR piece be? Your headline? Your lead?
Learn “the numbers” you need to measurably improve your readability at NOT Your Father’s PR Writing — our PR-writing workshop starting July 12.
There, you’ll learn to write a one-minute release (Journalists rarely spend longer reviewing releases).
You’ll find out how to measurably improve readability. (PR pros in our press release workshops have improved readability by up to 300% with our cool — free! — tool.)
Save up to $100 with our group discounts.