How do newspapers choose their features?

Northstarmom
Wed, 06 Jun 2007 07:10:49 +0000

The best papers – like the NY Times – choose features primarily in terms of timeliness. For instance, lots of kids are graduating from h.s. now and headed for college, so this is a good time to do a feature on someone like that.

Who gets featured depends on the luck of the draw. Either the reporter meets or hears about someone who seems worth featuring in an article or the reporter looks for someone to fit the kind of article the reporter wants to do. Clearly, the reporter doesn’t have the ability to screen hundreds of people, so usually the first person who seems to be a good example is the one who gets picked.

When reporters look for people to feature in an article that the reporter plans to do, the reporters do things like: send e-mails out to friends and other reporters asking for suggestions; ask other people for suggestions. For instance, the reporter of the article that you posted may have called teachers or guidance counselors and asked for their suggestions of kids to feature.

The reporter’s deadline, including how quickly people responded and how easy it was to get in contact with the students who were suggested, would influence greatly who got picked. In addition, how verbal the student was would be important. A student who was an even better example of what the reporter wanted, but who answered questions in monosyllables or was so modest that the reporter couldn’t get information from the person would be passed over in favor of someone who was articulate.