Get the first page right

The way people read has changed and so should the way we write.

When newspapers first went online, journalists wrote articles in the same way they always had.

This meant articles were often split across several webpages with a button at the bottom of each page to go to the next.

Readers had to click the button to keep reading. Most didn’t bother.Website traffic stats illustrated what may have always been the case. Most people read the top part of an article and ignored the rest.

Writers learned that much of what they wrote was never read. The words they sweated over just sat on page 2 or 3, unseen.

Journalists had to change how they wrote.

That's why online articles are shorter. They use single-sentence paragraphs and plenty of white space.

There’s a lesson here for finance professionals. No matter how well you write, your message has to land on the first page—or it might not land at all.

Next time you write a report, ask yourself: is my main message on page one? If it isn't, rewrite the report.