“Dying Newspaper Trend Buys Nation's Newspapers Three More Weeks: A recent glut of feature stories on the death of the American newspaper has temporarily made the outmoded form of media appealing enough to stave off its inevitable demise for an additional 21 days.”
That's a headline straight out of a recent issue of the satirical newspaper The Onion. Newspapers are scrambling to make up for declining ad revenue and shrinking circulation. Author Michele Weldon says one way they're trying to keep readers is by putting more feature stories on the front page instead of hard news. Weldon's an assistant professor at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and the author of Everyman News: The Changing American Front Page. She recently spoke with Eight Forty-Eight's Ashley Gross, and began with an example of what she means by a feature story.
Music Button: Mark Mothersbaugh, “Zissou Society Blue Star Cadets / Ned's Theme Take 1,” from the CD The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (Hollywood Records)