ABSTRACT
Most newspapers, unfortunately, are filled with boring or predictable feature stories. Features generally are not breaking stories, so in most cases there should be plenty of time to plan them. It's your job to work with the reporter to ensure that the story that runs in the paper is fun, surprising, moving, and entertaining. Work with the reporter on the front end; know what you're looking for. When Tom Hallman Jr. of the Portland Oregonian profiled door-to-door salesman Bill Porter, he did it by following Porter from early morning until late at night. It will give the story more meaning, more poignancy, or more universal truth. It gives you the context you need to understand the reservation where Darryl grew up. He was about to experience a new fast-track treatment that rushed him from Hutchinson to Minneapolis and opened the blocked artery in his heart within 90 minutes.
