Written for “Advanced Narrative Journalism” independent study course with professor Bob Sipchen at Occidental College, spring 2010.
We all yearn to escape the everyday and mundane. What else explains the popularity of the fantastic? Disneyland. Star Wars. Harry Potter. Lady Gaga. But as the old adage goes, “truth is stranger than fiction.” Our fascination with real life events and experiences – human dramas, societal and cultural crises – can be just as mesmerizing. How else to explain the fascination with “Reality TV?”
Writing that combines journalistic attention to fact and detail with literary techniques can create pieces that read more like fiction than reporting. This style is called narrative journalism. Fortunately, these stories can be found in society’s most common news source: the newspaper. The role of narrative in newspapers is one that has consistently evolved. At a time when newspapers face an uncertain future, it’s important to consider the role and potential of narrative journalism in newspapers.
The History of Narrative in Newspapers
The earliest examples of what we now consider narrative journalism originated with the British writers of the 1800s; William Hazlitt, Daniel Defoe and Charles Dickens are prime examples. In America, Mark Twain is credited as a major innovator of the genre. Other prominent narrative journalists were Stephen Crane, Theodore Dreiser and Walt Whitman. By the 1930s and into the ‘40s and ‘50s writers such as James Agee, Joseph Mitchell, John Hersey, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, Ernie Pyle and A.J. Liebling dominated the narrative journalism scene. But newspapers held fast to their reporting model based on the who, when, where and sometimes why of events. In an attempt to be a “serious” purveyor of news, story articles with literary techniques were shunned.[1] Jack Hart, managing editor and writing coach for the Oregonian wrote in Telling True Stories that, “By the mid 1950s, bureaucracy, uniformity, and the “it’s-not-news” ethic had driven most narrative storytelling out of North American newspapers.”[2] He calls this the “Dark Ages of newspaper journalism,” when corporate newspapers dominated and “all those creative individuals were banished from the newsroom.”
Narrative journalism found refuge in magazines, such as The New Yorker, so the genre survived. Successful writers for The New Yorkerincluded James Thurber, Brendan Gill, Lillian Ross, Joseph Mitchell, and John Hersey. In the ‘60s, a new generation flourished, including Tom Wolfe, Joan Didion, Norman Mailer and Hunter Thompson. At this point, narrative journalism returned to newspapers.
The change in newspapers reflected the attitude of the ‘60s – a looser, freer time when society reveled in crossing boundaries. As well, the drive to include creative, innovative works in newspapers corresponded with a drive to improve the writing quality in newspapers overall. This was important because newspaper readership had greatly declined by the start of the ‘70s. Newspapers had to take action. According to Jim Bettinger, Director of the John S. Knight Fellowships for Professional Journalists, “many newspapers, joined by journalism educators and institutes, mounted significant campaigns to reverse the decline in readership by improving newspaper writing.”[3]
Newspapers found a natural home for narrative in their Sunday magazines. But narrative journalism was gaining acceptance on the front page too. In 1968, the Los Angeles Times created the “Column One” feature that would present a narrative story each day on the front page alongside breaking news. Of course, Entertainment and Lifestyle sections were ideal for narrative pieces, particularly profiles, human-interest features and arts reviews. Even hard-news pieces began to incorporate narrative techniques, such as visual and sensory descriptions, or ledes that set a theme or opening of a story rather than introducing the most important fact in the first sentence. Investigative and “watchdog” stories about social issues also included narrative techniques, such as personal stories, to help persuade the reader to be interested and take action. Additionally, the tone of writing in newspapers changed from authoritarian and arcane to friendly and easy to understand. Before moving on to an analysis of the current role of narrative in newspapers, it’s important to understand both the complaints and praises about including narrative in newspapers.
Complaints
Accuracy and objectivity
More than other media, newspapers in particular dedicate themselves to objectivity. Bettinger defines objectivity as “providing a view of the news that is not influenced by the writer’s personal opinions or convictions.” However, the style of narrative journalism gives writers license to construct the facts of a story around a specific angle or theme. Inevitably, the article becomes influenced by the writer’s personal experiences and culture. It can be difficult to discern when a writer’s angle is truthful and accurate or when it is misleading and deceitful. As Bettinger explains, “the [narrative journalism] form can put the reader too completely in the hands of an individual writer whose goal may be to tell a compelling story, rather than to offer an “objective” account, laden with caveats and qualifications.” In contrast, he said, the traditional news model – more like a listing of facts than a story – can be more objective.
A related issue in using narrative journalism in newspapers is how to attribute sources. Typical news stories always cite their information to show its accuracy. But narrative stories represent such a large culling of information ranging from basic information to minute detail that it’s difficult to attribute everything, especially without disrupting the narrative flow. Newspapers have responded differently to this challenge, with some methods being footnotes, infoboxes or links to bibliographies posted online.
Length
Narrative journalism is often called “long-form journalism.” Good stories, with a beginning, middle and end and use of excruciating detail and description, are typically longer than an average news report that can relay facts without regard for structure, style or story arc. For modern newspapers in particular, diminishing paper space often make longer stories unfeasible. Yet long stories face the same challenge now that they have since the inception of the newspaper – keeping the reader’s attention.
Resources
Newspapers need time and money to publish quality narrative pieces. Narrative’s key elements including description, scene-setting and dialogue, require observation and access over an extended period of time. Often, daily newspaper writers just don’t have that time, and newspapers don’t have the money to allow writers to pursue a single story while abandoning their beat. Talent is another resource. Narrative requires writers to report and write differently than they perhaps had been trained to do as standard reporters. Either hiring better writers or training existing writers to compose quality narrative journalism takes time and money.
“It’s just not news”
Many narrative journalism articles focus on human interest stories rather than big news items, yielding the criticism, “It’s just not news.” Jacqui Banaszynski pointed out in Telling True Stories that in times of serious news like the 9/11 attacks, newspapers still printed human-interest stories on their front pages. This sparked the criticism, “The biggest news story in the history of America is happening, and you want to put some personal piece that you can’t describe on the front page?”[4] Finding a balance between significant hard-news and interesting narrative stories and knowing when to combine the two can be tricky.
The wrong impression
Newspapers employ a serious, authoritative tone to fit their image of being objective, accurate and trustworthy. Some think that narrative journalism, with its writing that’s sometimes called “fancy” or “stylish,” doesn’t fit the newspaper’s serious and proper image. Bettinger writes that “Stylish writing, many believed, hid a lack of facts, and furthermore alienated a newspaper from its readers.”[5] Narrative writing has also been seen as informal and personal, another way of deviating from a newspaper’s traditional style of seriousness.
However, multiple reasons outweigh or at least balance out these complaints in their praise of narrative journalism.
Praise
A unique element
According to the comedy TV series The Daily Show, in newspapers people find “merit in publishing the news 24 hours after it’s happened.”[6] The sarcastic comment intended to show the absurdity of publishing news “after it’s happened” when the web is full of to-the-minute reports. LA Times reporter Scott Gold concurs that the current news cycle is fast, saying “The 24 hour news cycle is now a 24 minute cycle, the Twitter cycle.”[7]
Rather than creating limitations, newspapers’ once-a-day format offers opportunities for narrative journalism. It’s true that readers no longer expect breaking news from newspapers. But what they can get are stories – narrative articles that present the facts they already know in a new and revelatory light. It’s these stories that can remain interesting and significant years later. As former LA Times journalist Dana Calvo noted, “The news blast won’t stand up over time.”[8] Former Washington Post Magazine editor Tom Shroder confirms, “When there’s both a set of amazing facts and a manner of putting them in a narrative so that they have maximum impact, people remember those stories for decades. They don’t forget.”[9] Gold noted that this capacity makes newspapers unique, saying “Old-fashioned long-form narrative journalism is not something you’re going to find on your favorite blog or Fox News.”[10] Bettinger explains that the typical news story with the inverted pyramid lede made sense only “when newspapers were the primary source of news and information.”[11] Clearly, that is no longer the case.
Reader friendly
Another positive aspect of using narrative journalism in newspapers is that the genre is characterized by a friendly tone and a voice that reflects the writer’s personality and sensibility. This style contrasts to the traditional emphasis on a cold, aloof, authoritative tone and a voice that could belong to any of a newspaper’s staffers. Newspapers need to provide an enjoyable, pleasant experience in addition to conveying the news. Narrative journalism helps to accomplish that goal. It’s worth noting that blogs – popular sources of reading material – are characterized by their personal and conversational tone rather than a serious one. Dan Conover, a former newspaper reporter who considers himself an authority on new media, agrees with the importance of voice. He wrote on his blog, “Journalism schools have taught view-from-nowhere, AP Style-compliant, mass-media-voice long-form feature writing for decades, and readers just aren’t interested.”[12]
Intimate journalism
Newspapers see themselves as a public service for the area they represent. Major events and happenings of course deserve recognition. But in their service to their cities newspapers need to also record the stories of the everyday lives of ordinary people. These stories help readers understand their place in the world by exploring how people live and what they value. Walt Harrington, head of the University of Illinois’ journalism department and a former writer for the Washington Post Magazine, coined the term “intimate journalism” to refer to this kind of writing.[13] Also called “human interest” stories, not publishing these kinds of articles would deprive readers of a vast bank of knowledge. As well, these stories often relate to larger political or social issues, helping readers to understand how those issues affect real people. Narrative articles about individuals and the difficulties of their lives can also act as catalysts for change. Additionally, Norman Sims, a journalism professor at the University of Massachusets at Amherst, has noted that “Feature stories about ordinary people can bring together readers with a taste for good prose and writers with literary ambitions — to everyone’s benefit, including the newspaper itself.”[14]
Current Issues
The 1990s saw the explosion of the Internet. Myriad media choices became available while cutting into newspapers’ role as the dominant news source. At the end of 2007, just as Americans had become adept with new technology, even preferring it to print mediums, recession hit. With so much news offered on the web for free, newspaper circulation numbers dropped drastically. At the same time, social media websites became popular, emphasizing the prominence of technology and promoting a culture of immediacy. News released online immediately in short blurbs became attractive, inspiring sites like Newser.com whose motto is “Read less, know more.” As well, newspapers lost money to advertisers who found better venues online instead of in print. Large newspapers were forced to axe chunks of editorial and writing staff. Small newspapers folded, or moved to online only. The number of pages per newspaper decreased and the size of newsprint shrunk. According to Tim Franklin, director the IU National Sports Journalism Program and a former editor of the Baltimore Sun, staff cuts and shrinking news space contributed to reducing the amount of narrative in newspapers.[15] Now, the future of narrative in newspapers must be reconsidered. Sims has noted that, “Some scholars have suggested that bringing voice and storytelling back to the newspaper in the form of narrative journalism may pay returns in a larger audience.” [16] He added, “It would be wonderful if literary journalism and public affairs reporting could contribute to the survival of the newspaper.”
While that future is being considered, newspapers have recognized that styles of narrative writing need to be updated for current times. Quality, format and length are some considerations.
Quality
With so much media competing for readers’ attention, newspapers must dedicate themselves to printing high quality work. Narrative writers must not go too far with creative license by using every piece of research available or lapsing into clichéd or manipulative storytelling devices. Washington Post staff writer Joel Achenbach is particularly convinced of the need for discipline, hoping for “Fewer “jello ledes,” quote-dumps, the whole notebook disgorged upon the page. Less overwriting by frustrated novelists.”[17] He concludes in an article for the Washington Post that, “Sorry, we don’t need to read Proust’s version of the zoning hearing.” Of course, high quality writing also means knowing when a topic shouldn’t be molded to story form. For Conover, many narrative journalism articles distort the way we view the world. He uses one example of an article about possibly contaminated water spun out like a “whodunit yarn” that he didn’t bother to finish reading, feeling as if it was written for “contest judges” and was manipulating him.[18] While Conover proposes that more articles should be written as listings of facts, he does not fear for the death of narrative. “The more efficient, short-form information we consume, the more we’ll long for the pleasures of a good story, nicely presented.”[19]
Format
Immediacy dominates today’s culture, and that has spread to newspapers too. When readers can find information on the Web in a matter of milliseconds, they expect to be rapidly informed in newspaper articles as well. This attitude has encouraged a shift in narrative writing from long, descriptive ledes to shorter ones that, while still creative, get to the heart of the story right away. Journalists as well as readers understand the need for quick information, such as LA Times business columnist Michael Hiltzik. In 2000 he published a narrative piece called “Through Gender Labyrinth” in the LA Times Magazine. Reviewing it ten years later, he sees elements he would revise. “The lede is too leisurely when looking with the eyes of 2010. Why did we start with Smotherman instead of bringing in Conway [the story’s focus] right away?” he asked.[20]
Length
In a similar vein, the narrative journalism articles published in newspapers today are shorter than they’ve been in the past. Roy Peter Clark, senior scholar at the Poynter Institute for journalism, affirms that “There’s this inevitable movement toward shorter, tighter, quicker.”[21] As newspapers lose money and must cut costs, newsprint and page space has been axed away, leaving less room for long narrative articles. The shorter stories also reflect our world of information overflow where readers want a quick-read so that they can go on to something else.
Hiltizk’s LA Times Magazine article offers an example of how times have changed. At 6,396 words, the magazine considered it an unusually long piece even at the time. But today, Hiltzik said, the magazine doesn’t publish long narrative pieces at all. In the newspaper, only the Column One feature regularly publishes long narrative journalism, but only at about 2000 words. “And that’s long,” he emphasizes.[22] Column One articles typically ran at 1,800 words when the feature began in 1968, but the newspaper imposed no “hard and fast limit,” wrote LA Times columnist Patt Morrison in the introduction to How Far Can a Piano Fly?, an anthology of Column One articles.[23] Some were as long as 13,518 words, and others as short as a few hundred. “Through the Gender Labyrinth” began as 9000-10,000 words. Hiltzik worked with Editor Bob Sipchen to narrow the focus and cut words. How did they decide the length? “It had to be long enough to tell the story fully,” Hiltzik said. He explained that it was a life story, going through the phases of childhood to the present. Of course, tons of information was left out – every narrative writer’s sacrifice for a shorter result.
Frequency
While daily news stories increasingly incorporate narrative techniques, newspapers have cut back on the number of narrative journalism pieces published per day. Largely, this is because newspapers must contend with shrinking news space. But writers and editors appreciate narrative techniques for their ability to engage and entertain the reader, and so many stories that report on the dull or commonplace often include sensory descriptions as well as an engaging, story-like lead. Sims supports the idea that Narrative shouldn’t be confined to massive enterprises. He said, “You don’t have to be John McPhee at The New Yorker to use the tools of literary journalism in newswriting. Within a larger story, a writer can embed a scene complete with setting, characters, dialogue, and action.”[24] John Carroll, former editor of the LA Times, agrees. At a conference hosted by Harvard’s Neiman Foundation, he proposed, “Any story should surprise and delight,” even a short police report.[25]
Implications
In an age of countless news venues, newspapers must retain an element of uniqueness in order to survive. Narrative journalism has no equivalent in tweets, blogs or news aggregates. It takes talent to write well, and can’t be copied quickly or easily. It could be the newspaper’s savior. Franklin supports this idea, explaining, “The successful publications left are increasingly recognizing that the holy grail of success is unique narrative reporting.”[26] Jason Fry, former writer and editor for The Wall Street Journal Online, agrees. He wrote on his “Reinventing the Newsroom” blog that “slowly but surely, papers are waking up to the idea that they have to stop doing what everybody else is doing and find ways to be unique…this is why I maintain long-form journalism — whether it’s investigative journalism or just superb storytelling — will not only survive but emerge as more important than it is today.”[27] In addition to the potential for providing a unique element, narrative journalism also generates a better newspaper-reading experience. In their 2003 study, the Readership Institute concluded that “Producing a newspaper is more than just providing discrete pieces of news and information, and associated pieces of service, but creating an overall engaging experience for the consumer.”[28] Narrative journalism creates that engaging experience. Yet, on top of being “good for business,” narrative journalism is important because it helps readers make sense of the world.
Famed narrative journalist Tom Wolfe is just one writer who supports narrative journalism’s mission of bringing context and emotion to reporting. In the ‘60s, Wolfe introduced the term “New Journalism” to describe narrative journalism, defining it by the use of four techniques: scenes, dialogue, status details and point of view. He’s less specific now, believing that no matter how it’s done, narrative journalism is needed to show the “emotional side” of a story. Like many, Wolfe isn’t confident about the future of newspapers. At a Neiman Narrative Conference in 2005 he said, “It would be a shame to lose print journalism, which explains “why” and puts things in context, but it could easily happen” as the web becomes a prominent news source.[29] At the same conference, Carroll offered a similar sentiment. The genre is “never needed more than today, when we’re bombarded with facts with no context,” he said. “We need to gratify the reader’s emotions and intelligence to help them make sense of the world.”[30] Even so, he noted that we’d “better get adjusted to a digital future.”
Newspapers might not always be the dominant source of news. But at the moment, they have the resources and talent to produce high quality narrative journalism. More importantly, newspapers more than other media have a duty to serve the public with journalism that informs on news and also the human experience, in all its splendor and complexity. Stories, one of humanity’s oldest and most natural forms of expression, channel this information in a way that is engaging, moving and often entertaining. They are just what newspapers need.
Works Cited
Achenbach, Joel. “The Vestigial Tale.” 28 Oct 2009. The Washington Post. 1 Feb 2010
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/28/AR2009102804896.html>.
Arnold, Roxane and Marc Duvoisin. How Far Can a Piano Fly? And Other Tales from the Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles: Los Angeles Times Books, 2003.
Bettinger, Jim. “Literary Journalism in U.S. Newspapers.” Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas. 1
Feb 2010 <http://www.upc.edu.pe/html/0/0/carreras/periodismo/hojas/JBettinger.htm>.
Buttry, Steve. “Storytellers are challenged, not limited, by Twitter and other digital tools.” 17 Oct 2009.
Stevebuttry.wordpress.com. 1 Feb 2010 <http://stevebuttry.wordpress.com/2009/10/17/storytellers-are-challenged-not-limited-by-twitter-and-other-digital-tools/>.
Calvo, Dana. Interview with Dana Calvo. Daina Solomon. 15 March 2010.
Connery, Thomas. A Sourcebook of American Literary Journalism . New York: Greenwood Press, 1992.
Conover, Dan. “Narrative is Dead! Long live Narrative!” 30 Oct 2009. Xarx. 1 Feb 2010
<http://xark.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/10/narrative-is-dead-long-live-narrative.html >.
End Times. Dir. Jon Stewart. The Daily Show. 2009.
Fry, Jason. “Why Long-Form Journalism is Still Relevant.” 9 Dec 2009. Reinventing the Newsroom. 1 Feb
2010 <http://reinventingthenewsroom.wordpress.com/>.
Gold, Scott. Interview with Scott Gold Daina Solomon. 15 March 2010.
Hiltzik, Michael. Interview with Michael Hiltzik Daina Solomon. 15 Feb 2010.
Hutchins, Sara. “Newspaper editors tell how they guide narrative storytelling.” 23 Nov 2009. Indiana
University School of Journalism. 1 Feb 2010 <http://journalism.indiana.edu/news/newspaper-
editors-tell-how-they-guide-narrative-storytelling/>.
Kirtz, Bill. “Why Narrative Matters As Newspapers Struggle.” 5 Dec 2005. Poynter Online. 1 Feb 2010
<http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=93107>.
Kramer, Mark and Wendy Call. Telling True Stories. New York: Plume, 2007.
Readership Institute. “The Newspaper Experience Study.” May 2003. Northwestern University. 1 Feb
2010 <http://www.readership.org/consumers/data/newspaper_exp.pdf>.
Shroder, Tom. “Nieman Storyboard.” 28 Oct 2009. Harvard College. 1 Feb 2010
Spadora, Brian. “The Future of News: A Case for Narrative Journalism.” 12 Feb 2008. Poynter Online. 1
Feb 2010 <http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=101&aid=136661>.
[1] Connery, Thomas. A Sourcebook of American Literary Journalism. New York: Greenwood Press, 1992.
[2] Page 232, quoted in Kramer, Mark and Wendy Call. Telling True Stories. New York: Plume, 2007.
[3] Bettinger, Jim. “Literary Journalism in U.S. Newspapers.” Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas. 1 Feb 2010 <http://www.upc.edu.pe/html/0/0/carreras/periodismo/hojas/JBettinger.htm>.
[4] Page 247, quoted in Kramer, Mark and Wendy Call. Telling True Stories. New York: Plume, 2007.
[5] Bettinger, Jim. “Literary Journalism in U.S. Newspapers.” Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas. 1 Feb 2010 <http://www.upc.edu.pe/html/0/0/carreras/periodismo/hojas/JBettinger.htm>.
[6] End Times. Dir. Jon Stewart. The Daily Show. 2009.
[7] Gold, Scott. Interview with Scott Gold. Daina Solomon. 15 March 2010.
[8] Calvo, Dana. Interview with Dana Calvo. Daina Solomon. 15 March 2010.
[9] Shroder, Tom. “Nieman Storyboard.” 28 Oct 2009. Harvard College. 1 Feb 2010 <http://niemanstoryboard.us/2009/10/28/tom-shroder-former-washington-post-magazine-editor-on-dinner-plates-and-well-done-narrative/>.
[10] Gold, Scott. Ibid.
[11] Bettinger, Jim. “Literary Journalism in U.S. Newspapers.” Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas. 1
Feb 2010 <http://www.upc.edu.pe/html/0/0/carreras/periodismo/hojas/JBettinger.htm>.
[12] Conover, Dan. “Narrative is Dead! Long live Narrative!” 30 Oct 2009. Xarx. 1 Feb 2010 <http://xark.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/10/narrative-is-dead-long-live-narrative.html>.
[13] Quoted in Kramer, Mark and Wendy Call. Telling True Stories. New York: Plume, 2007.
[14] Quoted in Spadora, Brian. “The Future of News: A Case for Narrative Journalism.” 12 Feb 2008. Poynter Online. 1
Feb 2010 <http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=101&aid=136661>.
[15] Quoted in Hutchins, Sara. “Newspaper editors tell how they guide narrative storytelling.” 23 Nov 2009. Indiana University School of Journalism. 1 Feb 2010 <http://journalism.indiana.edu/news/newspaper-editors-tell-how-they-guide-narrative-storytelling/>.
[16] Quoted in Spadora, Brian. “The Future of News: A Case for Narrative Journalism.” 12 Feb 2008. Poynter Online.1 Feb 2010 <http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=101&aid=136661>.
[17] Achenbach, Joel. “The Vestigial Tale.” 28 Oct 2009. The Washington Post. 1 Feb 2010 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/28/AR2009102804896.html>.
[18] Quoted in Buttry, Steve. “Storytellers are challenged, not limited, by Twitter and other digital tools.” 17 Oct 2009. Stevebuttry.wordpress.com. 1 Feb 2010 <http://stevebuttry.wordpress.com/2009/10/17/storytellers-are-challenged-not-limited-by-twitter-and-other-digital-tools/>.
[19] Conover, Dan. “Narrative is Dead! Long live Narrative!” 30 Oct 2009. Xarx. 1 Feb 2010 <http://xark.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/10/narrative-is-dead-long-live-narrative.html>.
[20] Hiltzik, Michael. Interview with Michael Hiltzik Daina Solomon. 15 Feb 2010.
[21] Achenbach, Joel. “The Vestigial Tale.” 28 Oct 2009. The Washington Post. 1 Feb 2010
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/28/AR2009102804896.html>.
[22] Hiltzik, Michael. Interview with Michael Hiltzik Daina Solomon. 15 Feb 2010.
[23] Page 3, Quoted in Arnold, Roxane and Marc Duvoisin. How Far Can a Piano Fly? And Other Tales from the Los Angeles
Times. Los Angeles: Los Angeles Times Books, 2003.
[24] Quoted in Spadora, Brian. “The Future of News: A Case for Narrative Journalism.” 12 Feb 2008. Poynter Online. 1 Feb 2010 <http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=101&aid=136661>.
[25] Quoted in Kirtz, Bill. “Why Narrative Matters As Newspapers Struggle.” 5 Dec 2005. Poynter Online. 1 Feb 2010 <http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=93107>.
[26] Quoted in Hutchins, Sara. “Newspaper editors tell how they guide narrative storytelling.” 23 Nov 2009. Indiana University School of Journalism. 1 Feb 2010 <http://journalism.indiana.edu/news/newspaper-editors-tell-how-they-guide-narrative-storytelling/>.
[27] Fry, Jason. “Why Long-Form Journalism is Still Relevant.” 9 Dec 2009. Reinventing the Newsroom. 1 Feb 2010 <http://reinventingthenewsroom.wordpress.com/>.
[28] Readership Institute. “The Newspaper Experience Study.” May 2003. Northwestern University. 1 Feb 2010 <http://www.readership.org/consumers/data/newspaper_exp.pdf>.
[29] Quoted in Kirtz, Bill. “Why Narrative Matters As Newspapers Struggle.” 5 Dec 2005. Poynter Online. 1 Feb 2010 <http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=93107>.
[30] Quoted in Kirtz, Bill. “Why Narrative Matters As Newspapers Struggle.” 5 Dec 2005. Poynter Online. 1 Feb 2010 <http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=93107>.
Lotus land 