Keep your stories under 1,500 words without your editor's approval. Two-parters are okay so long as each part can stand alone, and Part II is already written when Part I is submitted. Coverage of hard news is extremely difficult in this format. Write it from angles they haven't invented yet. Keep it simple and straight.
Ideology interests no one.
Avoid it like the plague. In stuff subbed as a column or an editorial or OpEd type piece, work for generating the interest of the reader in the subject as hand, and let that interest force the reader to consider the meaning of events you describe so that he or she will originate or connect to an idea if he or she wishes. We will have the assistance of people who know the technical stuff. Don't worry about the technology, just deliver the copy. This is not a technical newspaper.