event; they involve more in-depth issues reporters find or conceptualize on their own. These stories sometimes include the helpfulness and oddity/novelty news values. For example, a profile on the first female CEO at a company would reflect the novelty news value, as her appointment is a first for the organization. Helpfulness stories can also add value to content already being circulated online by helping readers think about news events in a broader way. For instance, a breaking news story about a deadly flu outbreak could lead to a how-to story detailing local doctors’ suggestions for staying healthy.
Feature stories without a specific time peg are called evergreens because they flourish all year round—meaning they can run anytime. Evergreens are beneficial for news organizations in that they can make a story timeless, which is particularly important in the Digital Age because stories can resurface repeatedly over time and gain new audiences on social media. For example, a feature about a new baseball pitcher with a great curve ball will be relevant only as long as that pitcher is new and interesting. But an evergreen story about how to throw a curve ball could circulate indefinitely, gaining new audiences over the years and enjoying a prolonged life online.
Popular feature stories include topics that people care about and interact with regularly, including relationships, pets, health and wellness, sports, the environment and technology. According to Google, the top 10 trending news stories of 2017 included April the giraffe giving birth at Upstate New York’s Animal Adventure Park, the popularity of the virtual currency Bitcoin and the first solar eclipse to cross the entire country in 99 years. These stories are timely in the moment, but they also resonate with readers long after the initial news event is over.
What Is Your Story?
One of the most difficult parts of being a feature reporter is coming up with story ideas. It is best to begin with a broad concept and then narrow it down to come up with manageable story ideas using a process called mapping. Think of a topic that interests you. Then, consider your audience, any related time pegs and what other broad subjects could be involved with your topic. Based on those elements, map out story ideas to come up with questions you could actually investigate for a story (see Figure 2.2).
Figure 2.2 Mapping Your Story Idea
Helpful Hints
Generating Story Ideas With News Values
Figure 2.3 Story Ideas From News Values
News values are not used just to determine whether an event is newsworthy; they can also be helpful tools for coming up with enterprise story ideas. Instead of searching through press releases and event calendars for stories, you can generate your own ideas by thinking broadly about each news value and narrowing big-picture thoughts into concrete story pitches (see Figure 2.3).
Creating Audience-Centric Stories
In coming up with good feature story ideas, reporters need to think about what affects people’s daily lives. Using our knowledge of news values, we can brainstorm enterprise story ideas that are relevant to our readers, as displayed in the “Helpful Hints” box.
Reporters can also tap into their knowledge of human psychology to think about what types of stories might impact readers. Using psychologist Abraham Maslow’s popular hierarchy of needs theory,4 journalists can come up with story ideas for each level of needs and thus for different stages in peoples’ lives, as displayed in this graphic (see Figure 2.4).
Using Stories to Meet Needs
Figure 2.4 Maslow’s hierarchy of needs can be used to generate story ideas.
Taking Notice
Start by identifying questions. You can use these techniques to brainstorm questions about relevant issues in your area.
Notice things, and ask why: How do clothing stores select their music? What is the store hoping to accomplish with its selections?
Changes and trends: Gas prices are going up—what are the potential consequences? Will people take more “stay-cations” (vacations at home)? Will families and friends get together less frequently?
Investigate: Underage drinking has gone down in your town—why? What factors are contributing to this?
Look for ordinary people doing extraordinary things:NO: The mayor calls for improvements to low-income housing.YES: A small group of college students create a new Habitat for Humanity chapter and participate in local builds.
Look for the unusual occurrences:NO: A profile about a local pediatrician.YES: A profile about a local pediatrician who incorporates yoga and holistic healing in patient practice alongside medical treatments.
Think about life skills people might want: How do you change your own oil? What can you do to better train your pet?
Thinking about stories from the readers’ perspective can help you craft feature stories that are impactful, memorable and shareable.
Exploring Feature Story Types
Feature writing allows reporters to explore a wide range of story types. Featured magazine articles can range in length from about 1,000 words up to 3,000 or more for in-depth publications, such as The New Yorker. Newspaper and online feature profiles are still longer than many other types of news stories but tend to be shorter than magazine articles, ranging from about 500 to 1,500 words.
Here we’ll explore some of the most common types of feature storytelling.
Reaction Features
Breaking news stories often revolve around the immediate basics, but feature reporting can include reaction pieces that carry a story beyond the preliminary information to help deepen readers’ knowledge of the topic. Usually, these stories involve a blend of expert sources and community officials who can provide big-picture perspectives on the issue and people who can talk about how they were personally affected.
Reaction pieces can help readers better understand the effects of a community tragedy. After a devastating fire in Northern California ravaged more than 1,000 homes in 2018, Los Angeles Times reporter Joseph Serna spoke with a man who had lost his wife and two great-grandchildren. Serna used the man’s story as one example of how the community reacted to the destructive fires. This excerpt illustrates how his story is one of many:
Ed Bledsoe cradled the stone in his calloused right palm, using his thumb to scrape away a layer of dust and ash. Finding nothing but a gray, smooth surface, he hunched over and tossed it back into the dirt.
The Carr [Powerhouse Road] fire had destroyed his home and killed his wife and two great-grandchildren. Bledsoe was looking for something to hang on to, even if it was just the rainbow-painted rock 4-year-old Emily had decorated.
“The
