Finishing is the number

Most reading products are measured on opens. Finishing is rarer, and it is the only number that means the piece worked.

Completion is a design outcome. It starts with the width of the column and the decision not to interrupt it.

Room to end

A reader finishes what you leave room for. A paragraph that has to climb over a module will be abandoned at the module.

Save the related stories for the end, when the reader has earned them. Before that, the piece is the only offer.

The column

If the line is too long, the eye loses the next one. If the line is broken by a card, the eye never asks for the next one.

Give the story a single measure. Let the end arrive without a prompt. People notice when a piece lets them out cleanly.