Getting published in a newspaper can be a extremely difficult. Every day, reporters and editors are pitched to from a broad range of sources for ideas that range widely from the extremely newsworthy to the ridiculous. With such intense competition over a very limited amount of space, the chances of getting your story in front of readers is rather slim. To circumvent this problem, try concentrating on a certain type of story. Write a story that speaks to a specific audience but isn’t time sensitive. Stories of this sort are called features and they can be the greatest thing that ever happened to your business.

A feature is written to offer a fully developed, in depth look at a certain topic that doesn’t  correspond to the big news of the day. Under ideal circumstances, a feature can be published today, tomorrow, or a year from now with the same effect. Unlike a press release, which outlines an upcoming event and invites reporters to be the first to grab the scoop, a feature is designed to be used just as it was submitted. It is worth noting, however, that after it is accepted by a newspaper, the editor has the right to edit it to fit the space available or remove content seen as superfluous.

There is almost no limit to the type of topics that can be suitable for a feature. Health and home improvement are particularly good topics for feature articles because these are subjects that hold the interest of many people on an ongoing basis. If your business is related in some way to one of these topics, or to the topics of travel or technology, a feature story is an excellent way to market your business. Features also have the advantage in that they can be used in supplementary portions of a newspaper, such as the lifestyle section or one of the special Sunday sections. If you can get your feature in to one of these sections, all the better, as it has been shown that readers have more time to peruse the paper on a leisurely Sunday than any other day of the week.  A feature article in the Sunday section means more eyes on your story and more time to absorb the content.

How Do You Write a Feature that Newspapers Will Want to Publish?  Here are a few secrets of the trade to help you better sell your content:

Give your feature an attention grabbing headline. If you don’t create the headline for your feature, the editor will create one of their own design.  Since the editor has little personal interest in getting people to read your story, chances are the headline provided by the editor may not be as good as you could make it. The headline is one of the most important parts of your story as it can affect whether a reader chooses to read your article or not. When thinking up ideas for your headline, ask yourself some questions about the article, and find a headline that answers these questions in a way that summarises the gist of the article. If you can make it clever and witty, so much the better. But don’t go overboard - you could just as easily lose your audience.

The content of your article should be written in a style similar to the other articles in the paper. To get a feel for the writing style, review an issue or two and use those templates to help you create a format for your article.