Marchesa in tough spot: Short & Long form structure

News happens first on Twitter, make no mistake about it, Twitter has in many ways been a boon to the media. Despite its constriction of using 140 characters, It’s one more way a story might go viral and it’s arguably the best way for a news outlet to get closer to their readership.

Shortform :

In a recent tweet by a popular fashion magazine Vanity Fair on the ongoing Harvey Weinstein scandal stated his wife’s reaction on it & news story reflects how it hits his wife’s fashion brand, Marchesa.

This tweet is an example of short form news written in an inverted pyramid style, where the news come first that Georgina Chapman decided to leave her husband followed by the quotes “My heart breaks for all the women who have suffered tremendous pain because of these unforgivable actions” explaining the reason, why she decided to take this step.

The starting words of this tweet “Marchesa’s Georgina Chapman” introducing by her brand name instead of “Harvey’s wife Georgina Chapman” makes up reader mind at the start that news is all about Marchesa, and then telling what happened to it & why?

The choice of words in this news story are very nifty, Vanity fair is focusing on its target audience by emphasizing on brand name & catching their emotional interest by unfolding the controversy related to it in just one liner.

In the light of The Seven Basic Plots by Brook Christopher,

Same story was tweeted by The Fashion Law, also written in inverted pyramid style, as they are breaking the news first that ‘Marchesa Jewelry Dropped by Licensee’ then telling the reason why, this short form follows the ‘the tragedy’ format as I observed, telling the loss or misfortune that brand’s owner has faced due to misconduct of someone else.

The Daily Beast tweeted also the same story, this short form follows ‘the quest’ format asking what will be the effects of the recent incident on the his wife’s brand, has he killed it or will it survive? This tweet is serving the purpose to its readers intriguing the news and their curiosity now what going to happen to this brand?

Suggestion

Here is an example of ‘overcoming the monster’ of entire chaos was created due to that scandal, answering the curiosity of the reader, what action she took after that incident happened.

Longform

The same story seen as long form in the BBC newsbeat with the catchy headline “Weinstein scandal hits wife’s fashion brand”

According to the Martin Cortazzi transcription of the narrative structure, this headline serves the purpose of an abstract that this news story is all about her fashion brand.

The start of this news article is giving the context of the news highlighting what happened (as allegations of sexual assault mount up) on who (Harvey Weinstein) that leads to a complication his wife of 10 years has left him

The statement of British fashion designer Georgina Chapman: her “heart breaks” for all the women who suffered pain because of him answers why did she take that decision.

And now the scandal is hitting his wife’s fashion label Marchesa in an evaluation of this story.

This news story is structured on an hour glass or Martini glass format, The beginning of the story is a short inverted pyramid that quickly states the basic facts of the story then narrowing down to the series of event happened one after another till the transition, a statement about scandal hitting the wife’s brand that explains why the story is important.

Then recalling the background of Marchesa brand, When it started & how it become so popular

Georgina Chapman is a co-founder of Marchesa, which launched in 2004 — the same year she started her relationship with Weinstein.

Then coming back to the point the challenges now this brand owner gonna face

So how will the allegations against Weinstein affect the Marchesa brand?

The reporter then highlighted the consequences/result (what finally happened) by providing some more info at the end

“An American jewelry company was due to produce a range with Marchesa but “The company is not launching the Marchesa brand at this time.”

Then add the kicker at the end by telling

The diamonds are still available on Helzberg’s website but without the name Marchesa.

Marchesa has also postponed its Spring Summer 2018 preview.

This is the news for its audience, followers or people who have invested in this brand.

The news story ends by adding a quote of brand strategist who is suggesting “Marchesa needs to do damage control and make clear that they don’t condone his [Weinstein’s] behavior”.

The ending of news story serves as coda as its gives the proper conclusion with the suggestion what can be done to makes things right, leaves the reader with positive impression about the subject.