The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 2 plus 4 plus 2 plus 4 plus 4 letter word NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS
I've seen this crossword clue in The Times
N
O
N
E
W
S
I
S
G
O
O
D
N
E
W
S
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Lack of reports would be better" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case lack of reports would be better = no news is good news.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.