[rbrogan]

Journalism ought to strive for compact, quality pieces that can be read at a fast pace. Many articles posted are much longer than they need to be, and their information density is not that great. It's not that it is never good, but rather that it is nowhere near the limits of what humans are capable of as far as communication goes.

[theoh]

Maybe the average article could be denser (though if you can give some examples of what you mean that might be more convincing). The "long form" piece is a rich stylistic tradition and it would be missing the point to try to compress it. Take John McPhee's writing, for one thing.