Getting Personal:

William Porfo was recently abducted by kinky aliens. He’s pretty sure he won’t be able to afford the new Health Insurance plan, and he had an unusual idea to keep his house from flooding in the recent heavy rains. So if he has anything intelligent to say about journalism, I’ll quote him at the beginning of this article.

Journalism has discovered the lead human being. Instead of writing pyramid style (important information comes first), or classical French Newspaper style (please keep reading, news may eventually show up): articles, these days, almost always begin with a quote from a real person.

Now you might think that journalism has thus evolved to the very pinnacle of style, and nothing could possibly be better. But when you’re aware of this style, it starts to look very clunky, unless it’s used well. Eventually, readers will get used to the leadoff-human trick, and journalists will move on to something else. Keep your eye peeled for that warm and friendly person in the first paragraph; the news can’t be far behind.