What makes a news story different than a feature story?

Blog 10: What makes a news story different than a feature story?

A news story informs readers about facts and who, what, where, when, why, and how. A feature article will also have the same underlying standards as a news story but allows the writer to go in more depth on the topic. More quotes, more people, more visuals, more content. A news story is breaking news and will usually have a lot of dates and times while a feature article takes a deeper look into things. A news story usually has a deadline and is time dependant where as a feature story can be recorded and written and saved for the right time to publish it. News stories must be breaking, if it happens that day, a news story must be written and published that day. A feature can take more time and go more in depth on what has happened and is not time dependant.

News stories contain just enough detail to give the reader a clear picture of what has happened and just of the story in general. Feature stories are more about reader interest rather than time dependency. Facts in feature stories are more elaborate, more interpreted, and contain more emotion and context. Feature stories are something the writer can choose what to write about and news stories are derived by what is going on in the world and community today. Techniques on the writing process are slightly different in each as well. You will need to do background research for both types of stories. Feature stories will often contain anecdotes, description and a lot of attributive verbs and quotes.