What are Topic Pages You Ask?

In searching for a topic for my Beginning Newswriting Class at Simpson College regarding journalism in the news I came across article by Maurreen Skowran called, "How Topic Pages can give Readers a Bird's-Eye View of the News" on PoynterOnline. The words "topic pages" caught my eye, but then I wondered what topic pages were

Basically what topic pages are is summaries of new stories. This always people to get caught up on the news quicker.

In a study commisioned by the Associated Press in 2008 showed that adults between the ages of 18 and 24 experiance "new fatigue" because we are continually supplied updates but lack the meat of the story.

Topic pages include summaries to stories, but also include links that the original story might not have.

But will they work? In December and January of this past year Google did an experiment with the help of The New York Times and The Washington Post called the "Living Stories." In this experiment each topic had a summary that was approximately five paragraphs long. The ending result showed that 75 percent preferred the "Living Stories" over regular online news stories.

This is a wonderful idea! Who has time these days to read the paper from front to back anymore. We want the information that we feel we need and we want it as quick as possible, easy to read, and links to answer any new questions we might have.