In a 1933 memo to newsroom staff, Hearst laid out his editorial guidelines-many of which are remarkably applicable to online content.

Here is a sample from Hearst’s list:

• Make your headlines clear and concise statements of interesting acts. ... Don’t allow copyreaders to write headlines that are too smart or clever to be intelligible.

• The front page is your forum. ... Sometimes condense a big story to go on the first page rather than run it longer inside the paper.

• Nothing is more wearisome than mere words. Have our people tell stories briefly and pointedly.

• Please instruct copyreaders to rewrite long sentences into several short ones. And please try to educate the reporters to write short sentences in the first place.

Compare these rules to Web usability researcher Jakob Nielsen’s guidelines for online content at http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting.