Communication World magazine featured “content snacking” in its January issue. And who doesn’t love to snack. (popcorn is my favorite!) In fact, that’s my point. The article talks about today’s cluttered media and messaging environment. With the invention of the iPad, smart phone and e-book, consumers are looking to quickly scan, read and digest critical information/news quickly.

I agree with the growth of snacking… or reading only the first part of an article and scanning the rest. However, I’m not sure this is new. As a journalist, you’re taught to write the inverted pyramid style. This means writers place the most important information in the first sentence so that stories can easily be edited from the bottom. But, also, news stories are written in this manner so that snackers can quickly read the first sentence and get a gist of the story. Or maybe just read until the jump to another page in the paper and there’s no time to read the rest.

The article says: If snackers comprise your core audience you have to cater to their needs. I’d argue “snackers” comprise every audience.

Whether you’re communicating a newsletter, email pitch to an editor, benefits package information to employees or timely news to industry professionals, you must find an interesting angle and start your message with it.

The article goes on to say that the “snacking” will not last – people will still want good “full meals” again. I disagree. People have been consuming only the first few paragraphs of an article for decades. (probably a habit we learned in high school from reading text books) If anything, I think the snacking will get stronger.

As a writer, I would hope consumers’ appetites would grow, but I’m doubtful simply because of the clutter. I think this places an even larger responsibility on the writers to engage quickly and do their best to write succinctly to sustain the reader’s appetite.