Practical Magazine Features and documentary Forms

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN NEWS AND FEATURES

NEWS                                            FEATURES/ DOCUMENTARIES

Telling                                            Seeing (incl "word pictures" on radio)
Brief/Summary                              Lengthy/ detailed (eg.500w)
Aimed at whole audience            Aimed - sections of the readership 
Length varies (importance)         Length fixed by editorial structure/TV radio /news agenda
Defined styles                                Many styles/ generic types
Pictures useful                               Pictures essential/ graphics
Published instantly                        Published according to schedule
Done by staff reporters                 Done by production staff/ freelancers
Event-led ("the news agenda")    Production-led (fitting schedule/structure of mag/newspaper

It is often said of newspapers that "people come for the news, but stay for the features". 

Features is FACTUAL but it is not NEWS (in the sense of happened immediately).

Products like monthly magazines must consist almost entirely of feature material.
A rolling TV or radio news schedule, on the other hand, is selling entirely on having the latest news and therefore has relatively little features. Newspapers, have a mixture of news and features. The same is true of scheduled/formatted news shows on radio and TV (eg The Today Programme; Newsnight; Channel Four News) which mix genuine news with mini-features.

Features are also very important in setting the "tone" for newspapers. Basically the news is the news (particularly when there's a clear news story like the World Trade Center attack) and there is little for the consumer to choose between one title and another. This all important "differentiation" is achieved by feature material. 
For all these reasons the features content of newspapers has increased in recent years - "featurisation" - so that newspapers increasing work like daily magazines aimed at particular markets. Note the way in which broadsheet newspapers, now run feature "puffs" above the title; ‘puffs’ show what potential purchasers see.
  

Examples of fantastic Feature writers and VJs:

Laura Barton, feature writer for the Guardian: 
- she does interviews and writes interview features
- really good in observational style, ‘the view from abroad’
- she also writes arts reviews, ‘music reviews’
- her observational feature video about the canals is almost like a poem, very artistic and effective
Laura’s videos

H.L. Mencken, 
An American journalist, very good in opinion pieces as well as very controversial, he was fantastic in provoking, he wrote for the spike attracting his readers.
A.A. Gill, 
A feature writer who followed footsteps of H.L. Mencken, the style is similar and equally controversial. He also writes Consumer Reviews – He has become a food critic more in the Gourmet Traveller online magazine.

Julie Burchill, controversial columnist, writes for the Guardian:   

Richard Littlejohn, Mail Online

Film making: Pennebaker, and also a very interesting style of feature creation is also a Koyanisqatsi style (Philip Glass).

Useful website to use: http://www.bbc.co.uk/journalism/

FEATURE WRITING
bbc journalism skills site

“If you are writing a feature, rather than a hard news story, try to grab the reader early on with a vivid thought or idea”.

“Feature stories don’t need to start with the most important information (…) but you still need to hook the reader early on”, Rob Liddle

“Aim to write a first paragraph that invites the reader to keep reading”

PICTURES TO GO WITH THE STORY


“Pictures can bring a web story to life, but you need to know which picture is most suitable to a particular job”

“It’s all about the context. You’ll use one kind of pictures on the front page, another in the body of the story (…) “

“Pictures on the front page are all about the impact “ – they need to be cropped to a desired size and draw reader’s eye to the story. On the other hand, pictures are used in the body of a piece to illustrate the story as extra information.

When choosing a picture it is important to think about how serious is your piece, “is it light-hearted you can be slightly more relaxed in your choice of image”

UNDERSTANDING FEATURE "FORMATS"
There is no such thing as "a feature" or "a documentary" as such. The key to feature writing is to understand the various FORMATS (in other words types): News Features; Confessional interview; Observational/Reportage Journalism; Consumer reviews; Reader response (emails, blogs, comments, competitions); Art reviews; Profiles, Investigations; Fashion (Photojournalism and Pictures), Comment & Analysis and Documentaries. 

The definition of these formats varies from journalism school to journalism school and between editors and professional feature-writers. In many ways SUBJECT MATTER is secondary to the format. Think about a TV schedule(/format). The Parkinson show is a format - is always the chat show. Likewise the Today programme always has a feature interview. The format/schedule of the programme always has to be one for its better recognition. 

Likewise a newspaper will always have a profile on page X; a comment piece on page Y; a news feature over the first few pages after the proper news pages; a feature interview with a sports star on the cover of the sports supplement and so on. 

Magazines are even more heavily formatted (advertising is sold to be included next to a particular type of feature). All of this is also true of the trade press; and specialist consumer magazines. 

If you want to freelance as a feature writer the first step is to understand the formats used by the title you want to write for; mastering the style of that format and then obtaining the subject matter for that format/section of the newspaper or magazine.

With experience you will be able to spot these formats across a variety of newspapers and magazine, TV and radio shows and see how similar they are. As with most things in journalism the difference between titles is more about the AGENDA than the style and format. So both Bella magazine and the Financial Times might have a regular PROFILE FORMAT type piece (in the FT it is called "People in the News"). The main difference is that in Bella it would be a TV star and for the FT it would be the chief executive of some company.

To understand more read about the different types of feature format described in these pages. Compare the formats to feature articles as they appear in newspapers and magazines until you understand them.http://veronicafryd.blogspot.com/2010/10/confessional-interviews.html

*based on notes of Chris Horrie and other sources