Splitting a print article

Know-how Splitting a print article
by Kiron Kasbekar

Printed magazines work differently compared with web pages. They typically have more space in which to write about a topic. But even with print magazines, you need to avoid very long articles running into many pages. When the subject merits a lengthy discussion, the best way to retain reader interest is to break up the article into many parts, or 'boxes' (or 'sidebars', like the one inserted above right, entitled 'Online publishing is different').

Occasionally a story may be split into two or three separate articles, each with their own boxes. The boxes, or sidebars, could contain text, or tables, or lists. The idea is that the main flow of the article should not be broken by too much detail. Not everybody is interested in the small details or side issues.

Place these in boxes, which become optional reading. Boxes play another role. A story may have some very interesting bits of information that may get lost in the sea of print -- placing them in boxes helps to highlight them.
Essentially what these boxes and related articles do is give readers a choice, allowing them to jump to a box, read it and return to the main story. Or leave the details for another day.

By arrangement with www.prdomain.com

Back to Know-how index