Good answer, Mary Anne. I should have dug deeper into the article -- but:

It's an American journalism rule of thumb that most people don't read past the first two paragraphs of an article unless they have a special reason to do so, that is, a pre-existing interest in the topic or the reporter, or an itch to read more created by those first two paragraphs.

All in all, this is very true, though others would argue the point. Of late, I've found I've had to dig deeper into a piece than I really wanted to just to find a "why", or a "how".

High school journalism - 101 (circa 1972):
"If you cannot answer the questions of the 6 Sisters of Journalism in the first 2 paragraphs, then you're not writing an article. You''re writing a documentary -- and taking up advertising space."
-- Teacher's name, sadly lost to time...

The 6 Sisters of Journalism, however, are still:
Who, What, When, Where, How, & Why.

Dan