> I would estimate that many are now written to target a less-than-high-school literacy level.

I would have imagined they would have been targeting less than high school literacy since their inception. At least the ones intended to be read by the masses. I'd actually expect that they target somewhere in the 4th-6th grade literacy range.

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thesuitonym 18 hours ago | parent [-]

It used to be a pretty well-known guideline that any writing for general consumption should be at no higher than an 8th grade level.

	▲	SoftTalker 17 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Well then I think 8th grade level must have been higher in the past than it is today. My local paper (basically a reprint of Gannett stories with a few local ones, mostly sports) tends to use a very basic vocabulary, often organizes stories as a set of questions/answers, or bullet point lists under a "What you need to know about..." headline. When I think back to newspapers I read in high school (1980s) or even in the 1990s they weren't written at that low a level.