Several readers recently singled out an unconventional New York Times item for criticism, Public Editor Margaret Sullivan wrote this morning. The article, titled “5 Things You Might Not Know About Hillary Clinton,” took some heat from readers who thought it was too much of a departure from the Gray Lady’s standards:
I heard from some readers who found it frivolous and who told The Times, in essence, to knock it off. Cathy O’Keefe, for example, called the article “clickbait,” and said it “isn’t a news story or an analysis. It is a listicle, and unworthy of The Times.”
But Sullivan isn’t buying it.
My take: I see no harm in these short pieces, frothy as they are, and inappropriate as they may seem when taken out of context. The Times is giving very heavy coverage to Mrs. Clinton, including in news and analysis stories appearing almost daily. (Since she declared her candidacy last month, over 70 news articles and at least 10 opinion pieces about her have been published.) If listicles were taking the place of substantive articles, or if only Mrs. Clinton was getting this lighter-than-air treatment, I think there would be cause to object. That’s not the case.
She isn’t alone among her colleagues who have expressed approval for judicious deployment of listicles. Earlier this year, David Leonhardt, editor of The Upshot, penned a defense of clickable content, declaring the listicle an “important tool in journalism.” By way of example, he cited an article that listed several tips to help readers eat more healthfully, a story that was a “more useful piece than it would have been as a 1,000-word essay or news article.”
There are examples elsewhere in New York Times coverage. One of the most popular stories published by The New York Times last year was a listicle titled “52 Places to Go in 2014.” The New York Times’ morning briefing comprises a bulleted list of need-to-know facts for the day ahead. And last year, T Magazine published a listicle — complete with GIFs and numbers — describing BuzzFeed, a company the Times once said was known for “dorky” lists.
Do BuzzFeed staffers take any satisfaction for the mainstreaming of an article format the site helped popularize? Poynter asked Ben Smith, editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed.
“I’d love to take credit for inventing the list, but the 10 Commandments have been going viral for an awful long time,” Smith said.
He’s right — a recent report from Nieman Lab pointed out that newspapers have also been publishing lists for centuries.
