Notes on news versus feature leads

What is the purpose of a lead?
1. To get the reader’s attention (“hook ‘em in”).
2. To introduce the subject of the story.
3. To lead the reader into the rest of the story.

A basic news lead:
1. Sums everything up nicely.
2. Covers the most important 5 Ws and H.
3. More direct.

A feature lead:
1. Tries to be a little more creative.
2. Includes more of the author’s voice.
3. Unfolds more slowly.

Two types of feature leads:

1. (Descriptive) Setting a Scene, Painting a Picture

Feature leads often begin by setting a scene or painting a picture - in words - of a person or place. Here’s a Pulitzer Prize-winning example by Andrea Elliott of The New York Times:

The young Egyptian professional could pass for any New York bachelor.
Dressed in a crisp polo shirt and swathed in cologne, he races his Nissan Maxima through the rain-slicked streets of Manhattan, late for a date with a tall brunette. At red lights, he fusses with his hair.

What sets the bachelor apart from other young men on the make is the chaperon sitting next to him -- a tall, bearded man in a white robe and stiff embroidered hat.

Notice how Elliott effectively uses phrases like “crisp polo shirt” and “rain-slicked streets.” We don’t yet know exactly what this article is about, but we’re drawn into the story through these descriptive passages.

2. Anecdotal lead
Another way to begin a feature article is to tell a specific story or an anecdote. Here’s an example by Edward Wong of The New York Times' Beijing bureau:

BEIJING — The first sign of trouble was powder in the baby’s urine. Then there was blood. By the time the parents took their son to the hospital, he had no urine at all.

Kidney stones were the problem, doctors told the parents. The baby died on May 1 in the hospital, just two weeks after the first symptoms appeared. His name was Yi Kaixuan.

He was 6 months old.

The parents filed a lawsuit on Monday in the arid northwest province of Gansu, where the family lives, asking for compensation from Sanlu Group, the maker of the powdered baby formula that Kaixuan had been drinking. It seemed like a clear-cut liability case; since last month, Sanlu has been at the center of China’s biggest contaminated food crisis in years. But as in two other courts dealing with related lawsuits, judges have so far declined to hear the case.

You find a specific person that can tell the story, and you tell the story through his or her point of view.