There is another type of story, which is built on a totally different
principle from what we have been considering. Its main characteristic
in starting out is that it does NOT give the five essentials, and
that it does not give first the most interesting fact of the story.
Manifestly it is not, then, a straight news story. People are not going
to read it for the important news that it contains. Because it plays up
some story which otherwise would hardly get into the papers at all, or
could only be given a very minor treatment and stuck off in some odd
corner of the paper, it is known in newspaper offices as a “feature
story.” It plays up some feature of an incident. It takes some small
happening of the day and gives it a treatment not unlike what we find
in short stories. And just as magazine fiction can use any one of a
million different openings, so there is no set rule for beginning a
newspaper “feature story.” We are setting out not to inform the reader,
but to give him pleasure of an artistic sort. It may be a pathetic
little story we have to tell, and it may sound odd to say that we set
out to give pleasure with it. But an artistic pleasure can, of course,
be gained from the deepest tragedy. So it is with the pathetic feature
story. Although, as a matter of fact, most feature stories are humorous
rather than pathetic.
Say that a reporter in going along the street overhears a little
girl playing school with her dolls. The youngster, not over six or
seven, uses some terms drawn from psycho-analysis. The reporter stops,
judiciously makes friends with her, gets her name, finds out where she
goes to school, and if possible ascertains where she got hold of the
big words. Of course, this story would not appeal to the average reader
of the average newspaper. It obviously has no straight news value. And
yet, properly handled, it would make a capital feature story for some
better types of newspapers.
Just as the former story would appeal to the child interest which was
mentioned earlier, so animal stories also make a good basis for feature
treatment. I have seen used an account of a dog who showed his delight
over being shorn of his heavy coat one hot June morning, and the
contrast with his dejection that evening, owing to the fact that he had
got a good heavy case of sunburn. Births of animals at the zoological
park can be treated in this way. Signs of intelligence in wild or
domestic animals are often treated in this fashion. The first birds in
the spring or a flight of wild ducks over a big city can be used. Signs
of intelligence or emotions in animals also make good feature stories.
All the interests mentioned earlier can, as a matter of fact, be
appealed to in this manner. Prominent men can be used. Stories about
them which are too insignificant for actual news treatment can be
utilized in this way. When the police-judge is suddenly called upon
to judge his own cook on a charge of drunkenness, the story has more
value as a feature than as straight news. When a well-known traffic
cop is fined on the same charge as the motor cyclist he had just
arrested--that of having glaring headlights--the story warrants more
than a straight news-lead.
Sports, hobbies, contests of all kinds, can all be drawn on for
feature stories. Frequently this type of story is used to bring out
the fact that we are all of us just human beings after all, liable to
make mistakes, with our little human frailties, ambitions, and prides.
“Human-interest stories” is the designation given to this sort of
story. Kindly, whimsical, this type of story helps frequently, in the
hands of a good writer, to set the tone of a city, just as editorials
do. The personality of a newspaper or a reporter can shine out here as
nowhere else, perhaps, and editors are always delighted when they can
find such a writer.