You buried the lead. Your staff lives in these issues and understand the procedures. Your readers donโt. Thereโs a 0% chance any of your readers have read all your articles for context.
Tee it up: Arizonaโs Republican legislators circumvented standard legislative and democratic process to force through controversial restrictions on science, education, and elections. They used the Budget Reconciliation process to create laws instead of writing bills and obtaining a majority vote in the Legislature as citizens expect. Exploiting that technical procedure is being challenged in court.
Then you can explain the defenseโs current argument and both the public and precedent effects of the judgeโs decision. The latter you also failed to cover.
If you want support for local journalism, you have to add value. If you want modern readers with attention spans of about a 140 character tweet, you have to be succinct. Writing copy like itโs 1905 and assuming readers are experts in governmental procedures isnโt going to get it done.
Aron Meyer
Foothills
Disclaimer: As submitted to the Arizona Daily Star.
