I thought I was the only one. Almost every article I read is way longer than it is necessary. Some information is repeated and the gist is tucked away someplace at the bottom.

It's written for a general audience, who typically want the human angle. This is how journalists are taught to write.

And if this were in a newspaper, they probably would have. But NPR is like the New Yorker - they are storytellers as much as they are journalists.

I enjoy reading the storytelling if it is for an article based on the events. For example, there were few articles I read about Steele dossier. The articles did lot of flash back into Steele's early life as MI6 agent and his harassment in the hands of FSB etc etc. That was a fascinating read. In an article about science though, I am not looking for a story, I am looking for data and the conclusions/recommendations.

I actually really enjoyed it. I find articles that are like "This Simple Trick Will Cure Your Back" a bit too simplistic. I want to know why the technique works and what's wrong with the standard way we're doing it. They actually split this into 3 different articles/podcasts saying a similar thing and I read them all.

What you're referring to is known as wordiness.

Ironically enough (given that someone mentioned the general audience, which they imply we aren't), most software guides are overly-verbose as hell.