8 Writing features for print
News is the story. The feature is the story behind the story.
In a feature you let your imagination flow around the facts. There are two kinds: news features and timeless features. The news feature is usually written to a tight deadline associated with the news story, and will probably be a sidebar to the news story. It can appear as a ‘follow up’ to the news story, perhaps the next day. The timeless story does not have to be used immediately and can sometimes take several months, but it still needs a ‘peg’ for it to be written or published.
Sources for features include records, contacts, interviews and newspapers.
STRUCTURE OF A FEATURE
Every feature has:
• a focus (what it’s about)
• a lead
• the body of the ...
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