A news feature is a soft writing style that takes a hard news story and adds detailed reporting, interviews and storytelling elements to make it more engaging for readers. Often found in the main news section of a newspaper, magazine or website, it has human interest at its core and can take different forms like a profile or personality feature, a historical or seasonal news feature, or an explainer or sidebar.
To write a successful news feature, start by choosing an interesting topic and exploring its implications. You’ll then need to interview a variety of sources and use research tools to gather all the relevant information, including quotes. Once you’ve gathered all the information you need, double and triple check for grammatical errors and assessing sentence structure and flow using free tools like Grammarly or Hemingwayapp. It’s also important to reread your article out loud to catch awkward phrasing or transitions.
When it comes to deciding what format your news feature will be, remember that proximity, timeliness and prominence will grab attention. People are more interested in what happens locally, and a timely story about a celebrity will be read far more frequently than one on an obscure politician.
However, don’t be afraid to tackle big subjects if you’re well-written and can capture the audience’s attention. A news feature is a great opportunity to keep people engaged, and it can even encourage them to take action or follow the story further.
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