We had an interesting discussion in the Erie Times-News editorial offices today, concerning the length of news stories. What prompted the exchange is an excellent piece in today's paper by courts reporter Lisa Thompson, who profiled a 66-year-old retired man who suffered numerous broken bones in a horrifying car accident four months ago.

A 17-year-old high school student was returning from a late-night trip to McDonald's when she fell asleep at the wheel of her Jeep, crossed the center line of the highway, and plowed into the retiree's Honda Accord. Comatose for three weeks, he hasn't been home since. The man is now awake and alert, and trying to learn to walk and use his arms and newly-constucted hands again.

The girl, who was drunk at the time of the accident, will be sentenced Thursday by an Erie County judge. In many ways, it's a story that puts the reader right in the shoes of the victim and the girl, or at least the girl's parents. The girl's mother thought her daughter was attending a slumber party, but she wasn't. And parents of another teen have been charged with giving alcohol to minors at the party she did attend.

At my own breakfast table, I read every word -- even after I jumped from the front page to page 4A and saw an entire page of type and photos staring me in the face. To me, the story was riveting, because, as the father of three teenage sons, I can only imagine what that 17-year-old girl's parents must be going through. Parents work so hard with their children, and we hope they make the right decisions, but once they leave our homes, we really have no control over what they do. Even more, my heart went out to the victim, who was only heading out to an early-morning breakfast. He and his family have been suffering ever since.

Anyway, the story is a great one, and I encourage everyone who can't get their hands on a copy of today's newspaper to read it on-line. Which brings we to my second point, as we discussed at our meeting: is this story too long for most readers? We live in an age of sound bites and highlighted information, and, I suppose, such a long read seems out of place, in some respects.

On the other hand, a daily newspaper offers readers an opportunity to return to stories that interest us when we have the time to read them. And, to me, this story is worth the investment in space (from the newspaper) and time (from the reader) because it's so darned compelling.

I couldn't say the same about every newspaper story, which is why editors should probably enforce the 15-inch rule in many cases. It's what helped USA Today become an industry leader.

But, on February 7, 2007, Lisa Thompson wrote a must-read newspaper article -- one that's good at any length. In fact, when I go home tonight, I might pull out my paper and read it again.

-- Kevin Cuneo

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