Theoretically, Net publications could laugh at these constraints. Space on servers is cheap. In one sense, Web publications have made good, creative use of this freedom. They have done so through the ever-increasing supply of links, which refer readers to background material, supplemental details, original documents, and all the other forms of data that made the process of reporting the story instructive for the journalist. Reporters always learn more when working on a story than they can share with readers.
Links let readers catch up-if they want.
But in the articles themselves, Net publications have evinced a frugal approach to space similar to that of TV, newspapers, and newsmagazines. Online articles are rarely more than 2,000 words long, about the scale of a medium-sized piece in The New Republic. Any longer than that, it seems, and you're pushing the reader's tolerance for staring at a screen. Most impor tant points can be made within 2,000 words, but not all of them can. Then the rest of the journalistic establishment responds-explaining the message, rebutting or criticizing it, and generally reacting to a shifted idea landscape.