Between tweets and twenty-inch clumsiness

Long-time commentator Michael Kinsley in the new Atlantic monthly magazine criticizes "traditional" newspaper writing for being too long, too formulaic and too timid.

He's got a point -- several of them, actually. And surely there must be a happy medium -- at least a practical, functional middle ground -- between ridiculously short Twitter posts or even typical USA Today brevity on the one extreme and overwritten and predictable (and lo-o-o-o-ng for no apparent reason) stories on the other.

Kinsley's take (not too long, appropriately enough, and quite readable) is highly recommended.