Magazine Lecture #2

Generic feature types

In features people consume the generic type of feature.


Types of features
Confessional Interview
Consumer Review
Pictures/Fashion
Comment/Analysis
Feature Interview
Documentaries
News Features
Profiles
Art Reviews
Investigations
Observational
Response

There is no such things as a feature. You can do a feature interview with current issues in the news such as floods.
Examples of how you would write all the different features on the same story about floods.
Confessional interview with a victim of the floods 
Comment piece - ‘flooding is good ...’
Comment has to be a strong piece about something. - that’s what gets you the readers e.g. fox news. In a comment piece it is good to have both sides - for and against
Documentary about flooding *fly on the wall*. 
News feature - not done in features but done in news. when a story isn’t standing out you make a feature. PEG - when your trying to sell a news feature which is a link to a real news story. the peg would be a comment piece, or a profile with someone. It links the feature to a particular news issue. Arts review on flooding. 
Observational - Gonzo journalism - I try to tackle the floods 
Reader response - valued by magazine editors as it proves to advertisers that people are actually reading and writing in. Competitions etc 
Consumer reviews - helpful information, rights etc
Picture spread
Feature Interview - local official, sit down interview 
Profile - (difference between this and a feature interview) Profile is a living obituary/pen portrait. These are seen in the Sunday broadsheets. Facts instead of thoughts of the person. It tells you all about the person, however there is no interview apart from maybe before it to just check the facts. A feature interview is an actual interview with someone about their thoughts etc. 
‘10 things you never knew’ - often types of profiles. 

Investigations - we initiate the story rather than like in news when we are covering things that are happening in the news. We decide we are going to go look at something. 

News	Features/Documentaries
Telling	Seeing (inc ‘word pictures on radio)
Brief/Summary	Lengthy/detailed
Aimed at the whole audience	Aimed at ‘niche’ 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 magazine/newspaper)

The feature content of the guardian to the the daily star is radically different. The way they do their interviews etc are very different. The features define the tone of the publication. 

They come for the news but they stay for the features. 

Print journalism is very headline driven. Often they only discuss the front page at meetings. 

Barkers - hooks to make people stay longer on the site. On the front page of big magazines they use barkers constantly also. They value engagement from the audience with the product. Features bulk out the site, make it sticky - stay on the site. 

Features are not time sensitive. Newspapers and Broadcast journalism are extremely time sensitive, a newspaper (most) is released daily and the news is 

It is important to understand the formats of specific publications to be able to work for one. By having knowledge about each type of feature done in a certain publication is allows you to find out where you could fit, what ideas you have to improve a certain aspect or even create a new part.