ABSTRACT
Indeed, because newspapers and magazines long ago conceded spot-news breaks to radio, television and the Internet, strong feature-writing ability can be the people ticket to a fine career in print journalism. Critics who see journalism as the inverse of entertainment demean both enterprises. The feature story, unlike the hard-news story, sometimes communicates effectively if the people step —briefly but only when appropriate —into the action. The Observer’s response is a detailed, highly readable three-part series titled, “Race Against Death.” Computer-assisted analysis is done on 24,000 emergency runs by ambulance crews, and reporters interview dozens of medics, patients, experts and officials. In profiling any infamous hoodlum, as in sketching a famous politician, the people writing must take readers to a deeper understanding, into meaning not easily captured in daily spot-news reporting. Today, obits in many newspapers are unblinkered looks at life as the deceased truly lived it, written in engaging, featurish style.
