Your cover story is probably too short.

How short is too short? Under 3,000 words. How long is too long? Generally, over 5,000, unless you’re running a large paper magazine with more than 96 pages.

Yes, this sounds crazy. But think of how we measure success in a magazine:

Time spent reading.

A long story does take longer to read, but a relatively small percentage of readers will actually get through a long narrative piece. But here’s the kicker: studies I’ve worked with show that far more readers actually think they’ve read the piece, provided you have provided many entry points and lavish packaging. (See more about packaging here.) By doing an occasional ambitious feature of 4,000 to 5,000 words, you can boost reader time from the average of 20 minutes per issue to more than half an hour.

Reader respect.

People like an institutional magazine with some gravitas. A long story helps provide that. In qualitative studies I’ve done with readers, I’ve found that many claim they’ve read long narrative features when actually they just went through the packaging. Magazines with meaty narratives tend to have the most loyal readers, judging from subscription renewals of newsstand magazines.

Awards.

When I arrived at Rodale to run the sports and fitness group of five newsstand magazines, few had won any serious awards. After we recruited some top writers, the awards came in droves. We commissioned serious narrative stories, and the rest followed. 

None of this means you can run any old story with a huge word count.

Long stories must have a great yarn behind it, a theme that appeals especially to your readers, and a great writer.

The big stories I’ve gotten to edit count as highlights of my career. At Dartmouth, we commissioned a story about an explorer who dropped out, infuriated Catherine the Great, died vomiting on the shores of the Nile River, and continues to inspire students to this day. At Southwest, I edited a piece about a veteran with PTSD whose life is saved by a service dog trained in a women’s prison. Another story became an acclaimed book. Yet another led to the bestselling book Born to Run.

I hear from clients that they don’t have the budget or time or staff to do this kind of ambitious story. Yet, none of these pieces cost that much, and with the right protocol (see this post on best practices), you can get the writer to do most of the revising. To be honest, we’re still talking about a great deal of work, just for the packaging.

But each story will be the best thing you ever work on.