I was paid for the word once and let me tell you, if they said 1500-2000 words, you can guess which end of the range I took. But that situation was very rare a

I was paid for the word once and let me tell you, if they said 1500-2000 words, you can guess which end of the range I took. But that situation was very rare and in the other five or six jobs I've had in the journalism world, it hasn't been the case. And in fact journalistic style is to pack as much into the first sentence as you can. This is a long, analytical feature piece by a major journal's news department. If you want the brief version, find a rewrite by AP or a blog.