The special feature article must not be confused with the type of news story called the “feature,” or “human interest,” story.  The latter undertakes to present minor incidents of the day’s news in an entertaining form.  Like the important news story, it is published immediately after the incident occurs.  Its purpose is to appeal to newspaper readers by bringing out the humorous and pathetic phases of events that have little real news value.  It exemplifies, therefore, merely one distinctive form of news report.

The special feature article differs from the older type of magazine article, not so much in subject as in form and style.  The most marked difference lies in the fact that it supplements the recognized methods of literary and scientific exposition with the more striking devices of narrative, descriptive, and dramatic writing.

SCOPE OF FEATURE ARTICLES.  The range of subjects for special articles is as wide as human knowledge and experience.  Any theme is suitable that can be made interesting to a considerable number of persons.  A given topic may make either a local or a general appeal.  If interest in it is likely to be limited to persons in the immediate vicinity of the place with which the subject is connected, the article is best adapted to publication in a local newspaper.  If the theme is one that appeals to a larger public, the article is adapted to a periodical of general circulation.  Often local material has interest for persons in many other communities, and hence is suitable either for newspapers or for magazines.

Some subjects have a peculiar appeal to persons engaged in a particular occupation or devoted to a particular avocation or amusement.  Special articles on these subjects of limited appeal are adapted to agricultural, trade, or other class publications, particularly to such of these periodicals as present their material in a popular rather than a technical manner.

THE NEWSPAPER FIELD.  Because of their number and their local character, daily newspapers afford a ready medium for the publication of special articles, or “special feature stories,” as they are generally called in newspaper offices.  Some newspapers publish these articles from day to day on the editorial page or in other parts of the paper.  Many more 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.