Dear Reader,

So, what did you think of my headline?

According to this online article, I managed to squeeze 5 results-guaranteed clickbait techniques — personal pronoun! data! hype! controversy! power words! — into a single subject line. With milliseconds to grab your attention, and an estimated eight seconds or less to hold it, savvy marketers will say whatever they have to, to get you clicking their link.

Our attention spans have been shrinking for decades. Why read a newspaper when you can listen to the radio? Why listen to the radio when you can watch the evening news? Why watch the news when you can visit a website? Why visit a website when you can scan your newsfeed? Why bother with a newsfeed when you can skim headlines on social media?

Why, indeed?

For almost as long as I’ve been in this business (almost a quarter century, if you can believe it), I’ve heard that long-form journalism is destined for extinction. “No one reads anymore.” “Print is dead.” “The future is digital.”

And yet… and yet… books — printed on paper, hold-in-your-hands, dog-ear-the-pages, actual physical books—are more popular than ever. In fact, the largest growth of book sales during 2020 was in the young adult category.

So, here’s a thought: maybe it’s not that people are reading less, but that they have become more discerning about what they consume.

We had that thought in mind at our recent Atlantic Business AGM when we decided to double-down on not just print, but on the inherent strength of magazines. Longform, well-researched, carefully curated content isn’t just what we produce; it’s who we are.

We’re more than news; we give you the back story.

Back story is what led us to Stephen Kimber’s powerful investigation into the origins of Verafin, the St. John’s, N.L.-based fintech company that was recently acquired by Nasdaq for the mind-boggling sum of $2.75 billion.

I know it sounds jaded, but let’s be honest: almost every article or news report about the venture deal (largest in Canadian history!) focuses on the 10-figure price tag. But that doesn’t reveal much of anything about Verafin. Where did this company come from? How did it grow? Who made it happen? THAT is the story we wanted to tell.

Stephen was on the case. At the end of August, he sent me an email asking if I’d ever heard of, or knew how to get in touch with a man by the name of David Kelly. He was a graduate of MUN’s business school (B.Comm, class of ’68). Stephen had come across information that linked Kelly to the earliest days of Verafin.

I hadn’t heard of him, but I was able to track down people did. David Kelly was a find. He provided Stephen with access to an absolute treasure trove of historical documentation. Stephen had his story, a story with a surprising depth of detail that is already receiving accolades and one of our highest-ever online attention retention rates.

Anyone can write clickbait headlines; the real test is holding reader interest through an entire story. Are you with me?
 

Dawn Chafe Executive editor & co-owner dchafe@atlanticbusinessmagazine.ca