What do readers want, anyway?
So many journalists forget that we write for someone else. I, too, am guilty of that. I get so excited about some inside baseball factoid and I want to share it with the world.
But how should we convey that information?
According to Northwestern University’s Readership Institute, readers want news in packaged formats that are easy to read. They also overwhelmingly want feature-style writing, according to this study. Follow the link to see the difference between inverted pyramid and feature, or narrative, writing. It engages the reader more. It tells a story rather than reports on events. This is what reporters will have to do to survive in a landscape that competes for a consumer’s attention.
Newspapers in the United States use inverted pyramid style for 69 percent of all stories, feature-style writing for 18 percent, and commentary for 12 percent. While inverted pyramid style is appropriate for most stories, nonetheless there is strong evidence that an increase in the amount of feature-style stories has wide-ranging benefits.
Unfortunately the biggest obstacle the reporter faces is his or her own editor. I face this at my job, where my editor tells me there is not always a feature in every story. He is probably right. Features tend to take more space. And the only reason they take more time to write is because most journalists were trained in the inverted pyramid style of writing. Jon Franklin, a two-time Pulitzer prizewinner, suggests in his book “Writing for Story” that once you practice the feature style it becomes second nature and it won’t take as much time.
I have used Mr. Franklin’s advice for almost a year now, and I am writing these features quicker than ever before. It just takes time and practice.