How To Write Special Feature Articles | Page 4

papers have magazine sections on Saturday or Sunday
made up largely of such "stories." Some of these special sections
closely resemble regular magazines in form, cover, and general
make-up.
The articles published in newspapers come from three sources: (1)
syndicates that furnish a number of newspapers in different cities with
special articles, illustrations, and other matter, for simultaneous

publication; (2) members of the newspaper's staff; that is, reporters,
correspondents, editors, or special writers employed for the purpose; (3)
so-called "free-lance" writers, professional or amateur, who submit
their "stories" to the editor of the magazine section.
Reporters, correspondents, and other regular members of the staff may
be assigned to write special feature stories, or may prepare such stories
on their own initiative for submission to the editor of the magazine
section. In many offices regular members of the staff are paid for
special feature stories in addition to their salaries, especially when the
subjects are not assigned to them and when the stories are prepared in
the writer's own leisure time. Other papers expect their regular staff
members to furnish the paper with whatever articles they may write, as
a part of the work covered by their salary. If a paper has one or more
special feature writers on its staff, it may pay them a fixed salary or
may employ them "on space"; that is, pay them at a fixed "space rate"
for the number of columns that an article fills when printed.
Newspaper correspondents, who are usually paid at space rates for
news stories, may add to their monthly "string," or amount of space, by
submitting special feature articles in addition to news. They may also
submit articles to other papers that do not compete with their own paper.
Ordinarily a newspaper expects a correspondent to give it the
opportunity of printing any special feature stories that he may write.
Free-lance writers, who are not regularly employed by newspapers or
magazines as staff members, submit articles for the editor's
consideration and are paid at space rates. Sometimes a free lance will
outline an article in a letter or in personal conference with an editor in
order to get his approval before writing it, but, unless the editor knows
the writer's work, he is not likely to promise to accept the completed
article. To the writer there is an obvious advantage in knowing that the
subject as he outlines it is or is not an acceptable one. If an editor likes
the work of a free lance, he may suggest subjects for articles, or may
even ask him to prepare an article on a given subject. Freelance writers,
by selling their work at space rates, can often make more money than
they would receive as regular members of a newspaper staff.

For the amateur the newspaper offers an excellent field. First, in every
city of any size there is at least one daily newspaper, and almost all
these papers publish special feature stories. Second, feature articles on
local topics, the material for which is right at the amateur's hand, are
sought by most newspapers. Third, newspaper editors are generally less
critical of form and style than are magazine editors. With some practice
an inexperienced writer may acquire sufficient skill to prepare an
acceptable special feature story for publication in a local paper, and
even if he is paid little or nothing for it, he will gain experience from
seeing his work in print.
The space rate paid for feature articles is usually proportionate to the
size of the city in which the newspaper is published. In small cities
papers seldom pay more than $1 a column; in larger places the rate is
about $3 a column; in still larger ones, $5; and in the largest, from $8 to
$10. In general the column rate for special feature stories is the same as
that paid for news stories.
WHAT NEWSPAPERS WANT. Since timeliness is the keynote of the
newspaper, current topics, either growing out of the news of the week
or anticipating coming events, furnish the subjects for most special
feature stories. The news columns from day to day provide room for
only concise announcements of such news as a scientific discovery, an
invention, the death of an interesting person, a report on social or
industrial conditions, proposed legislation, the razing of a landmark, or
the dedication of a new building. Such news often arouses the reader's
curiosity to know more of the persons, places, and circumstances
mentioned. In an effort to satisfy this curiosity, editors of magazine
sections print special feature stories based on news.
By anticipating approaching events, an editor is able to supply articles
that are timely for a particular issue of his paper. Two classes of
subjects that he usually looks forward to in this way are: first, those