How do newspapers choose their features?

tako
Wed, 06 Jun 2007 01:56:57 +0000

Just wondering. I found the following New York Times article called “Getting into College, Strumming His Own Tune.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/06/education/06education.html?ref=education

which is another one of those inspirational, reality check, relieving kind of articles about a kid who got into college on his own merits.

Admittedly, the kid is bright. He lived in high school. He did what he wanted. He never took SAT classes or had tutors or joined clubs to put on his college application. He sounds like somebody I would want to be friends with :)

Anyway, I don’t want to target him specifically, but I was just wondering: how does the New York Times go about choosing who to feature in their articles? I mean, he’s surely not the only kid in the country who did their own thing in school - in fact, most kids get through high school on their own merit - it’s really only the few, elite few who get “help” on the way - and this article could have been written only plenty of kids. So I guess what I’m trying to say is - what makes him special? Did he get recommended for an article? Did the New York Times pick somebody at random? I’ve always wanted to know…