"Never assume", my first editor told me. Then, as an aide-mémoire, he added: "To assume makes an ass of you and me." Ungrammatical it may have been, but he had a point: as a reporter you should always give the readers all the information they need to understand your article, even if it seems obvious. But apparently many reporters don't follow this rule, with the result that young people are ignoring articles about politics and economics. This inspired veteran editor Richard Addis to launch an online student newspaper called The Day (www.theday.co.uk).
Mr Addis believes that the inability of journalists to simplify complex issues has led to a decline in the quality of the press. "People didn't understand complex stories, so they didn't bother to read them", he told The New York Times recently. "Then the media gave up writing them in order to concentrate on... George Clooney's sex life or which football player had too much to drink." But ignoring the tough stories means being poorly informed about the political parties chasing your vote, the economic trends that may destroy your job, and even the motivations behind terrorist attacks. Good writers don't show off, they communicate. The great dandy Beau Brummell once said the clothes of a truly well-dressed man were beautifully simple. And that should be the case with the best journalism, too.
