Kinds of story
Feature
Also: feature article
A longer, more crafted story that explores a subject in depth, with more colour and shape than a hard news report.
A feature trades the speed of news for depth and shape. It can run to thousands of words, takes its time with scene, character and detail, and is built to be read rather than scanned. Where a hard news story front-loads the facts, a feature can open with an anecdote and hold its point back. Most freelancers sell features rather than news, because they travel well and date slowly.