Introducing Quick Takes

News is a bit of a difficult area for everyone; people want to get the information, but we feel, given that there are a numerous set of sources, that we have to add value to it in some way or another. Typically, value is added via context, speed, thoroughness on what’s available, or a combination of the three. Today, we are introducing Quick Takes as another way to help add value and help get more news out there.

Quick Takes at their heart basically allow the author to append a small opinion about the piece at the end, clearly separated from the rest. The idea here is Quick Takes give a chance for a quick reaction or analysis that is less than what an editorial might have but lets the writer express their thoughts and perhaps connect it to something else.

What this adds for the readers is the ability to get the news unfiltered and also some quick analysis on the topic.

• With Quick Takes, however, we realize there is a slight blurring of the editorial/news line. We have spent some time working on that and there are a few things we want to state as rules:
• It isn’t mandatory for writers to do a Quick Take. Not everyone will have one, or every story need one
• Quick Takes will be clearly separated from the rest with bolded Quick Takes title and the writing in italics at the bottom.
• Quick Takes are quick … meaning up to 50-100 words in general.
• The Opinions will be relevant and related to the story in question
• Particularly sensitive stories we may opt out of providing them at the editor level. Basically on investigative stories or ones with sensitive topics, we prefer to let the facts speak for themselves entirely and not interject opinion.

We’re committed to providing the best news we can for you—with the best information available—and we think that this will improve the experience for readers by letting them get to know the person writing a bit more and to get some extra information.