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THE NEW, OLD JOURNALISMJane Johnston & Caroline GrahamPublished online: 11 Nov 2011.

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THE NEW, OLD JOURNALISM

Narrative writing in contemporary newspapers

Jane Johnston and Caroline Graham

While there is a significant literature on the rise of narrative journalism in daily newspapers,

mostly from the United States, few studies have investigated the breakdown of newswriting styles

in the front end of the newspaper, with a specific focus on the use of narrative techniques. This

study investigates the writing styles of two daily metropolitan print newspapers in order to

provide some concrete data on narrative news reporting in Australia. In a sense, it responds

to Mark Kramer’s comment in 2000 that ‘‘no one has added up the reallocated column inches to

quantify this change.’’ The research analyses 5000 articles from the news sections of broadsheets

The Australian and The Sydney Morning Herald in 2007 and 2009 to determine a breakdown of

writing styles. It found that narrative writing styles had decreased over the two-year period,

claiming almost one-fifth of stories in 2007 but less than one-sixth in 2009. It also brings to the

discussion in-depth interviews with leading newspaper editors and journalists. The study

represents part of a longer-term trend analysis, to provide ongoing insights into print newspapers

within the changing media landscape.

KEYWORDS Australian newspapers; narrative journalism; news reporting; newswriting styles;

print newspapers

Introduction: Are Newspapers Really Becoming Story Papers?

Newspapers worldwide are rethinking and redefining their presentation, platforms

and styles as they compete with other media for audience share. Part of this shift has been

recasting the front page to tell stories rather than simply reporting the news. Analysis of

news during the first decade of the 2000s indicated narrative storytelling techniques were

increasingly used within the news pages of metropolitan dailies, challenging the more

traditional news style of the inverted pyramid (Hartsock 2007; Kramer, 2000; Shaw, 2006;

Weldon, 2008). One reason given was that narrative storytelling is more compelling to read

than the information model of the inverted pyramid and this approach may help to retain

newspaper readers who are being lost to other media. Birks told the Nieman Narrative

Journalism Conference: ‘‘Anecdotally, we’re finding that excellence in narrative not only

brings people back to newspapers, but makes them loyal readers and encourages them to

trust the writer’’ (in Weisstuch, 2001). Or, as Hartsock notes, this storytelling model is

simply a return to a style which has been ‘‘marginalised for nearly a century’’ (2007, p. 258).

Kramer (2000) noted a trend back to narrative writing in newspapers in the United States

but added: ‘‘No one has added up the reallocated column inches to quantify this change,

but nevertheless there are many signs of the increasing interest.’’

Indeed, as Kramer and Birks point out, while there may be a ‘‘sense’’ that narrative

writing is on the increase in newspapers, this has been based on anecdotal evidence rather

than empirical studies. An exception to this is presented by Weldon (2008) in her book

Everyman News: the changing American front page, which looks at the growth in narrative

Journalism Studies, Vol. 13, No 4, 2012, 517�533ISSN 1461-670X print/1469-9699 online

# 2012 Taylor & Francis http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2011.629803

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on the front pages of 20 North American newspapers between 2001 and 2004. She found

that the percentage of what she classified as ‘‘front page features’’ increased from 35

percent in 2001 to 50 percent in 2004. Her findings showed a shift toward anecdotal and

humanistic approaches to storytelling; ‘‘newspapers have become story papers,’’ she

concluded (Weldon, 2008, p. 1).

In Australia, one of the authors of this paper took an earlier (Johnston 2007)

snapshot of the writing styles used in Australia’s two most popular daily broadsheet news

pages, The Australian and The Sydney Morning Herald, to determine their narrative content.

Johnston analysed 2435 stories in the two dailies over the month-long sample period and

found that while the inverted pyramid was clearly the most common structure in the news

section of both papers, with on average 81 percent of stories written in this style, a

significant 19 percent was not inverted pyramid, written in either narrative style (16

percent) or as comment/column (3 percent).

The purpose of this current research was to revisit these two newspapers two years

on and, like Weldon had done in the United States, investigate if any trends had emerged.

Ultimately, this study is intended to become part of an ongoing biennial analysis of the

two papers which aims to provide continued investigation into writing styles and patterns

in print newspapers in Australia as they face the challenges of online media.

News by Any (Other) Name

Distinctions between ‘‘news as information’’ and ‘‘news as narrative,’’ and ‘‘news

affiliated with literary style,’’ are certainly not new in journalism discourse. Campbell talks

of a notion of a ‘‘higher journalism’’ in England in the 1850s and the identification of ‘‘a

new journalism’’ in the 1880s as invoking superior and more reflective journalism affiliated

to literature (2000, p. 5) Drawing on examples and scholarship from Britain, Europe and

North America, between 1820 and 1930, she explains a divide in how journalism was

accepted in modernist thinking. She notes how Beaudelaire coded journalism as ‘‘female,’’

thereby degrading it, while others such as George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells and Walter

Benjamin lauded its praises, at the same time disassociating themselves with the

formalism of book writing. ‘‘Only this prompt language shows itself equal to the

moment,’’ said Benjamin (in Campbell, 2000, p. 2).

In the United States, Schudson (1978) noted that reporters told narrative stories in

chronological order until the end of the nineteenth century and the summary lead became

standard by 1910. This is confirmed by Errico whose study of American newspapers

between 1860 and 1910 suggested the inverted pyramid developed due to ‘‘new social

trends at the turn of the century’’ (1996, p. 6). By the 1970s Tom Wolfe wrote the famous

New Journalism as the precursor for moving out of the confines of the inverted pyramid

style, spearheading a new style for the time by incorporating techniques of the novel into

journalistic writing. Schudson (1978, p. 89) noted the distinction between ‘‘story’’ and

‘‘information’’ news models, essentially differentiating between narrative, which was

affiliated with subjective writing, and discursive, the more objective style. Hartsock (2000,

p. 81) noted that in the United States, until recent times, narrative journalism was one

variant of objective journalism so the distinction was not always clear.

The merging of genres brought with it elements of the style and structure of

literature to journalistic writing. Elements attributed to narrative or literary journalism

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include factual accuracy, plus fictional writing devices such as character development,

complication, detailed description, scene setting and construction, and time reconstruc-

tion (see Boynton, 2005; Clark, 2006; Connery, 2008 [1990]; Hartsock, 2000, 2007). Zdovc

(2008, p. 5) says the narrative journalist shows the world as he or she feels or sees it

whereas ‘‘in traditional journalism, an article is based on presentation of both (or all) sides

of the story and on the neutrality of the journalist, who makes no judgements and never

employs emotional expressions.’’ Indeed, Franklin (2007) notes that journalists are trained

not to insert meaning into news stories.

But the need for ‘‘meaning’’ and interpretation is fundamental to those who support

narrative journalism. Advocates provide compelling arguments for the adoption and

expansion of the use of narrative storytelling elements, among them greater depth and

engagement (Clark, 2006; Connery, 2008 [1990]; Franklin, 2007; Hartsock, 2000, 2007;

Kramer, 2000; Weldon, 2008).

Narrative guru Jon Franklin (1996) observed: ‘‘One of the most marketable things the

modern print journalist has to sell, it seems, is coherence.’’ While Franklin was referring to

the revival of long-form journalism, his argument holds true for narrative newspaper

writing. He believes if ‘‘we do it right, it can help reverse the decline of our profession’’

(Franklin, 1996). Narrative was also a preferred choice of readers in the 1993 benchmark

study in the United States which investigated readability of four newspaper writing

styles*the inverted pyramid, narrative, point of view and radical clarity (Denton et al.,

1993, p. 16). In concluding, the researchers said: ‘‘In their search for tomorrow’s readership,

editors need to be looking beyond the inverted pyramid’’ (1993, p. 17).

While a popular choice among readers, staunch supporters of the style are also

practising narrative journalists. Susan Reed, a journalist who has written for CBS, The New

York Times, New Republic, and Atlantic Monthly notes: ‘‘It’s a complicated form of writing

because you have to do so much reporting before sitting down to construct it. It’s a

complex equation, using scene setting, description, and dialogue’’ (in Weisstuch, 2001).

Senior Fairfax journalist and author David Marr (interview, 15 June 2011) points to the

key elements of character and time. He says the first appeals to the interest and

experience of readers, while the second gives stories a sense of authenticity and

accountability: ‘‘One way to test whether a narrative is convincing is does the clock tick

throughout. From timelines, the truth emerges. One of the difficulties of short-form

journalism is that there is no space for time, which is a crucial element in informing and

convincing readers.’’

And there is also a commercial imperative against the ‘‘free’’ online alternatives.

Weisstuch (2001) noted that narrative news reporting in newspapers is: ‘‘particularly

reaffirming to anyone who has a sense that newspapers are suffering at the hands of

cable and the Internet, venues that notoriously pilfer audiences from the pleasures of

print.’’ The Weekend Australian editor Nick Cater (interview, 4 May 2011) from News Ltd

(the Australian arm of News Corp) is careful to assert that narrative journalism is not a

conscious response to the challenge of online content, though he agrees it can

constitute a point of difference for newspapers. ‘‘I always think about the Net as

something that’s a million miles wide, and an inch deep.’’ He adds: ‘‘Narrative journalism

is something extra*something you can’t find on the Net. It’s well written. It talks to you

in a nice way*it doesn’t shout a message at you . . . and it usually asks the question: Why

are we telling this story?’’

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Narrative Journalism in Australia and the United Kingdom

Though American newspapers have an established tradition of allocating space to

long-form narrative journalism, sometimes in multiple parts (see, for example, Miller’s 2006

discussion of a 12-part series which took 12 months to write), Australian newspapers do

not have such a tradition, nor, as Joseph (2010) notes, has there developed any significant

research into the genre in Australia. In her recent examination of creative nonfiction in

Australia,1 Joseph (2010, p. 83) differentiates creative nonfiction from feature writing and

‘‘daily journalism’’ by, among other things, extended engagement with subjects in the

stories. Her investigations found a lack of research, debate, discussion and history about

creative nonfiction and narrative journalism in Australia.

Likewise, McKay has found a similar situation in the United Kingdom. In her chapter

for the first international book on literary journalism (McKay, 2011), McKay argues this

genre is largely ignored within the academy and by practitioners in the United Kingdom.

She laments any real discussion or study of literary journalism in the United Kingdom,

noting ‘‘in the UK we’re a long way from according serious recognition to the literary

qualities of the best journalism’’ (McKay, 2011, p. 58). Campbell (2000) suggests that the

1990s saw an accession of literary interest in journalism in media and cultural studies’

university departments, however, she acknowledges a cultural elitism that forms a

resistance to this connection. She calls this ‘‘a sort of mason’s handshake among

intellectuals’’ (2000, p. 3), in effect keeping journalism in its place. Others, who express

concerns over the direction journalism is taking in the United Kingdom, see the problem

coming from within the profession, as quality journalism is lost to economic pressures and

the ‘‘dumbing down’’ of newspapers. Jack, in The Granta Book of Reportage (2006), raises

concerns about the merging of comment into news, at the expense of quality journalism.

‘‘Comment is cheap but facts are rather expensive,’’ he notes (2006, p. viii).

Australia has seen a reduction in what might be called literary journalism

publications in recent years, with the loss of The Independent Monthly, Nation Review

and the National Times (Joseph, 2010). An exception to this has been the introduction and

continuation of The Monthly, since 2005, while other journals such as Quarterly Essay,

Meanjin, Griffith Review go beyond the scope of both journalism and magazines.

Guthrie agrees both Australia and the United Kingdom do not have a history of

literary magazines, noting ‘‘newspaper strongholds’’ with ‘‘relatively few serious maga-

zines’’ (2010, p. 194). While he acknowledges the role of Australian newspaper

magazines*notably Good Weekend and the Weekend Australian Magazine*he flags a

significant difference in literary style and rigor in US magazines. Australian journalism

Professor Matthew Ricketson (interview, 23 June 2011) confirms this distinction, noting

that while longer, more ‘‘crafted’’ narrative writing has a definite place in Australia, it does

not have the same presence as it does in America: ‘‘[America has] the geography,

population and culture to support that economically, and to sustain magazines like

Harper’s and The New Yorker. It’s not that Australians can’t or don’t do that kind of work.’’

Instead, he notes: ‘‘Australian newspapers use narrative to flesh out news stories’’ (in

Joseph, 2010, p. 85). These comments speak to this research, which looks to provide some

empirical data beyond the assertions that this practice simply exists. It suggests that in

the ‘‘fleshing out’’ of news stories in Australian newspapers, series like ‘‘Inside story’’ in The

Australian as well as longer narrative investigations in The Sydney Morning Herald and The

Age, can provide a strong mixture of investigation and narrative storytelling to the front

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pages, indeed page 1, of the daily newspaper. Nick Cater discussed some of this longer-

form writing:

One of the key elements of narrative journalism as I see it is that it’s a longer form*we’ve

had up to 5000 words from page one. Now this is rare, but when we do put more than a

few thousand words from page one, it sends a message to readers that they should

invest some time in this, that it’s important. (interview, 4 May 2011)

Having said this, Cater is also realistic. ‘‘You can never tell stories fully*you’re a

newspaper.’’ This comment aptly applies to this research: while we are investigating

narrative news, we remain mindful that the news pages are self-limiting. We move from

this point to our study, which investigates these news pages.

Quantifying the Narrative: Our Study

The purpose of the study was to determine what structures were being used within

the news sections of two daily metropolitan newspapers in 2009 and compare these to

findings taken from a sample in 2007. From this, it was hoped that assumptions based on

observation and anecdotal evidence in the literature might be supported by empirical

data. As such, the study represents the first part of a longitudinal study, using a trend

analysis approach. Wimmer and Dominick (2006) note that trend analysis is the most

common type of longitudinal study in mass media research. To ensure uniformity, the

2009 study was locked into the method already established in 2007.

The samples were analysed via a simple content analysis, defined simply as a

systematic procedure devised to examine the content of recorded information (in Wimmer

and Dominick, 2006). The primary difference in the 2009 study was that the research was

now being undertaken by two researchers and coders. Ongoing cross-checking was

undertaken during the sample coding and counting to ensure definitions of inverted

pyramid, narrative, column/comment and hybrid styles were consistent and content was

analysed ‘‘according to explicit and consistently applied rules’’ (Wimmer and Dominick,

2006, p. 151). The two investigators are former journalists who have each worked on daily

newspapers in news and features. In addition, we have both taught news and feature

writing at university and share a common understanding of narrative news writing.

The research questions that drove the study were:

RQ1: What percentage of news stories in the news pages employed an inverted

pyramid style of writing and what percentage employed a narrative or comment

style?

RQ2: Was there a clear distinction between these styles or were hybrid styles emerging

in the news pages?

RQ3: What stories would typically be written in a narrative style?

The study looked at the writing styles in the news pages of The Australian and The Sydney

Morning Herald over a one-month period in 2009. This was the same sample period as that

used in 2007: 15 April to 14 May. The two papers were chosen because of their importance

within the Australian news environment. They represent two of the three metropolitan

broadsheet newspapers in the country (the third being The Age, from the same group as

The Sydney Morning Herald), as well as the two primary newspaper groups in

Australia*The Australian, owned by News Ltd, and The Sydney Morning Herald, owned

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by Fairfax. They are also widely regarded as news agenda setters (see, for example,

Pearson and Brand 2001).

Stories were categorised according to the following criteria:

1. Inverted pyramid: began with a summary lead, making the story content clear in the first

few paragraphs with attribution within the first three paragraphs; the story written in

descending order of importance, focusing on the who, what, where, when, how and why

approach to informative news.

2. Narrative: began with a non-summary or feature lead, tended to set a scene, time-line or

introduce a character at the start, employed either conversational or informal storytelling

approaches and descriptive word choices, used storytelling writing devices such as

description, scene-setting, place or time reconstruction, character development.

3. Column/comment: indicated by head-shot or by-line of columnist or commentator,

written in first-person or in obvious commentary style.

In addition, a fourth category had emerged out of the 2007 study*called an

unconventional inverted pyramid (UIP) or narrative hybrid, which had elements of both

inverted pyramid and narrative. Typically it began with a narrative style lead and used

storytelling approaches for several paragraphs, then moved back to the more traditional

information-based approach. In the 2007 study, because this structure was a finding in

itself, the UIP numbers were counted as a sub-set of the inverted pyramid. For consistency,

this study used the same approach.

The newspaper sample was restricted to the front section of the two papers,

traditionally the news section, because the study aimed to investigate what writing styles

were employed in the news section only. Thus, the total number of news stories in the

front section of the paper was counted, with the exception of pages that were clearly

identified as feature pages, column/gossip, letters or opinion. Excluded sections in The

Australian were: Arts, Letters, Features and Opinion; in The Sydney Morning Herald were:

Timelines (obituaries), Stay in Touch (gossip), Letters and Opinion, Arts & Entertainment,

Education, Health and Science, and Television. These omitted sections, while in the first

part of the newspaper, were written in predictable and specific styles (e.g. feature,

commentary or gossip) and were clearly marked by page banners. As a result, the total

pages analysed was made up of news and world news only.

Included and excluded sections were generally consistent across the two-year

period. However, there were occasions where the format of the newspaper’s first section

was anomalous. For example, both papers also ran a Federal Budget lift-out on 13 May;

these were not included in the tallies. Despite minor variations, the sample from the two

periods was similar: the 2009 sample included 2565 stories while the 2007 sample

consisted of 2435 stories. Collectively, the two samples represented a total of 5000 stories.

As Table 1 shows, the number of narrative news stories in both papers fell slightly,

the inverted pyramid stories rose slightly and comment pieces dropped slightly in The

Australian but rose in The Sydney Morning Herald. The most significant move was seen in

the reduction of The Sydney Morning Herald’s use of narrative between 2007 and 2009. It

fell from 22.2 to 13.4 percent of stories, representing an 8.8 percent reduction in the use of

this style. This compared to The Australian, which fell from 10.6 to 9.2 percent narrative

stories in 2007 and 2009, respectively, representing a 1.4 percent fall. In total, in 2009, 11

percent of news was written in narrative style, with a further 4 percent comment/column

pieces. This 15 percent total compared to 19 percent from the 2007 sample.

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In addition, the authors conducted three semi-structured interviews. All interviews

were conducted by phone by a single interviewer, after the content analysis was complete,

and took about 45 minutes. One journalist was approached from each of the two news

organisations represented by the content analysis (from News Ltd, The Weekend Australian

editor Nick Cater, and from Fairfax Media, narrative journalist and author David Marr). In

addition, Australian journalism professor Matthew Ricketson (who has a professional and

academic profile in narrative journalism in Australia) was able to compare the findings to

the international media landscape. Their comments form part of the background to this

article, and contextualise its findings.

Narrative and the Search for Meaning

Court, crime and police stories were among the most likely to be presented in

narrative form, particularly if these stories had tragic, sensational or unusual elements.

Court stories, in particular, lend themselves to narrative form, not dissimilar to the way

information is presented (as a story with a beginning, middle and end) in court. This

finding is consistent with the 2007 study.

One of the most prominent examples of this was the inquest into the death of

17-year-old David Iredale. For example, Drew Warne-Smith’s article (‘‘The What-ifs of

Tragedy in the Scrub’’ (The Australian, 2009) goes beyond basic recounting of events and

attempts to find meaning, or theme within the story:

There is a single question that has haunted the coronial inquest into the death of Sydney

schoolboy David Iredale: What if?

What if, when David rang the triple-0 emergency line seven times on his mobile

phone, lost and distressed in thick bushland in the NSW Blue Mountains, his pleas for

help had been met with empathy and understanding?

Stories about fashion, art and drama were also likely to have narrative elements, as

were those about an individual’s success (such as award recipients) or their life (in the case

of a high-profile individual’s death). In contrast, economic and party political stories

were almost exclusively presented in inverted pyramid style. It should be noted that as the

Federal Budget release fell within the sample collection dates in both 2007 and 2009,

economics stories were perhaps more of a focus in these samples than would be apparent

year-round.

On many occasions, an event was initially reported in an inverted pyramid format,

with a narrative approach as a follow-up to humanise or provide context for the story in

TABLE 1

Breakdown of writing styles, 2007 and 2009 (%)

The AustralianThe Sydney

Morning Herald Total

2007 2009 2007 2009 2007 2009

Inverted pyramid 84.6 86.4 76.3 83.4 81 85Narrative 10.6 9.2 22.2 13.4 16 11Comment/column 4.8 4.4 1.5 3.2 3 4Total stories counted 1376 1394 1059 1171 2435 2565

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the following days. Where stories were packaged into two or more page features to

extend news coverage (such as for Anzac Day, swine flu and a refugee boat fire), both

papers appeared to have made a conscious effort to include a mixture of inverted

pyramid, narrative and comment/column styles to diversify coverage. For example, a news

story about the Thai Rebellion written by Canberra-based Sandra O’Malley (The Sydney

Morning Herald, 2009) begins:

Australia is urging the Thai government to peacefully and lawfully resolve its growing

political turmoil*at a time when 55,000 Australians are thought to be working or

holidaying in Thailand.

On the same page, the issue is also presented by correspondent Sian Powell (2009)

in a very different format:

The two young Thai men crouched beside the commandeered bus abandoned by

Bangkok’s downtown Din Daeng intersection, siphoning fuel from its tank and pouring it

into small bottles.

‘‘Boom,’’ they said, with relish. ‘‘Boom.’’ Clad in red, the colour of opposition and

insurgency in Thailand, these protesters were ready to fight for a new political order.

Sometimes papers formalised this presentation and presented multiple angles of the

same story packaged under prominent banners across two, three or four pages.

Hybrid Styles of Writing

The inverted pyramid story count increased in both newspapers over the two study

periods. This made the analysis of the UIP or hybrid, taken from within this category, all the

more interesting. The UIP, which had emerged in the 2007 study, was noted to lead with a

narrative structure, include conversational elements and be less formal and rigid than a

straight who, what, when, where, why and how approach, while usually providing more

context for the story. UIP incidence increased in the two years, by 2 percent in The

Australian and, significantly, by 7 percent in The Sydney Morning Herald (Table 2). Where in

2007 The Australian had a higher incidence of this sub-category, by 2009 The Sydney

Morning Herald was now the leader in this group (10 percent of its stories were UIP).

In some cases, UIP stories began with a personal angle then moved to include the

wider implications in a format more consistent with inverted pyramid style. For example,

Katrina Lobley’s ‘‘No Splitting Hares: it’s the great rabbit census’’ (The Sydney Morning

Herald, 2009) begins with one man’s perspective:

TABLE 2

Breakdown of inverted pyramid stories, 2007 and 2009 (%)

The Australian

The SydneyMorningHerald Total

2007 2009 2007 2009 2007 2009

Traditional inverted pyramid 94 92 97 90 95 91Unconventional inverted pyramid 6 8 3 10 5 9Total number of stories 1164 1204 808 977 1972 2181

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Neil France might be a dairy farmer but his 365-hectare property near Camden is home

to more rabbits than cows.

Mr France reckons the number of wild rabbits roaming the farm has doubled

during the decade he’s lived there.

From there, his story is related to a wider issue:

Mr France is among a growing number of farmers who, like the farmers of the past, says

there seems little point in trying to control the pest . . .

It is not until the seventh paragraph that the ‘‘new’’ (news) element is introduced:

During May, Australians will be asked to help count wild rabbits as part of a rabbit

census.

The story then returns to inverted pyramid format. However, while there are many

examples of this ‘‘hybrid’’ style, the more common approach was to attach a narrative lead

to what was essentially an inverted pyramid story. For example:

The story has echoes of a Shakespearean drama. A rich, powerful man lies dying in his

mansion, attended by his wife and his children awaiting a visit from his former mistress

and their child. (Honey, The Sydney Morning Herald, 2009)

There were also occasions where writers took a brief ‘‘break’’ mid-way through an

inverted pyramid story in order to highlight the humour or absurdity of a story, notably in

a column or commentary style. For example, in her report on English police officers’ appeal

to be able to speak plain English, Melanie Reid (The Australian, 2009) says:

This includes many ‘‘confusing and irritating’’ phrases when speaking to the public, along

with a host of bewildering acronyms. Simply put, it seems that after years of proceeding

in a northwesterly direction to investigate the party exiting a vehicle, the police would

rather just say they had turned left to see the man getting out of the car.

Attitudes and Opinions in News

While there was not a statistically significant increase in the number of comment

pieces in either newspaper, elements of column or comment style were apparent even in

inverted pyramid stories, and were not always clearly marked as opinion through headings

(such as ‘‘Comment’’ or ‘‘Analysis’’) or picture by-line. This was more common in

international stories, particularly political articles. For example, Johannesburg-based Russel

Skelton’s story ‘‘Scandal No Obstacle to Suma Presidency’’ (The Sydney Morning Herald,

2009) starts as news but contains elements of commentary:

The big unknown in today’s election is just what sort of president Mr Zuma will prove to

be . . .

Mr Zuma, a leader of infectious charm and charisma

Another unknown in the election is how the traditionally weak opposition and a myriad

of independent parties will perform.

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Moreover, while few narrative and no inverted pyramid stories were written in first

person, several contained ‘‘attitude,’’ which distinguished them from traditions of

dispassionate reporting. For example, Richard Gluyas’ reference to Patrick Keating’s

business partnership (The Australian, 2009) includes many elements of inverted pyramid

structure; the tone, however, is far from impartial:

BrisConnection’s gadfly Nicholas Bolton teamed up with Paul Keating’s son Patrick for an

unsuccessful, multi-million-dollar bid for high-end suit and shirt retailer Herringbone,

which went into administration late last year.

The revelation that Melbourne-based Mr Bolton, 27, reached deep into Sydney’s elite

for his tilt at Herringbone adds a further twist to the already contorted BrisConnection.

Mr Bolton, however, has clearly learned that discretion is just as important as being

well-connected.

World News

The 2007 study noted that stories from The Times, The Guardian, The Washington

Post and Associated Press printed in the world news pages also used narrative structures

on a broad range of topics, suggesting that further study of world news might indicate if

this was consistent with a trend. While no statistics were taken in 2007, the 2009 study did

include figures on this category (Table 3). It found that in both papers world news was

roughly comparable with the rest of the paper in narrative and inverted pyramid style

breakdown.

The researchers noted that international stories presented in narrative form broadly

fell in two categories: tragedies and contextualisers. When writing about an international

event, such as a natural disaster, disease or political turmoil, the writer used narrative

techniques to humanise. For example, Kenneth Denby (The Australian, 2009) writes in

‘‘Cyclone Orphans Nobody Wants’’:

Aye Myat Mon and her little brother Ye Htet Kyaw, who clung together during the

terrifying hours of Cyclone Nargis, are two among the multitude of lost children in

Burma.

On other occasions, narrative techniques served as a way to encourage readers

to engage with problems outside their own frame of reference or help facilitate

understanding of a foreign event. For example, Joel Glionna begins his report (The Sydney

TABLE 3

World news writing styles, 2009 (%)

The AustralianThe Sydney

Morning Herald Total

World All World All World All

Inverted pyramid 88 86.4 81 83.4 81 85Narrative 9 9.2 12 13.4 16 11Comment/column 3 4.4 7 3.2 3 4Total stories counted 296 1394 196 1171 2435 2565

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Morning Herald, 2009) into the naming of Jang Song-taek as Kim Jong-Il’s second in

command by introducing the man to unfamiliar readers:

He is an enigma from the world’s most secretive state, a behind-the-scenes political

operative known mostly as a trusted brother-in-law to North Korean strongman Kim

Jong-Il.

But Jang Song-taek recently emerged as a decisive player in the drama of who

might succeed the ailing 67-year-old in a country that remains defiant in the face of

international pressure to dismantle its nuclear arsenal.

Day-to-day Trends

While no breakdown of narrative news by day of the week was recorded in the 2007,

there was a clear indication in the 2009 study that the weekend editions of The Australian

and The Sydney Morning Herald had larger numbers of narrative stories than most week

days. Figure 1 shows The Sydney Morning Herald, in particular, had a spike in narrative

news in its Saturday newspaper. The Australian had spikes in narrative writing on three of

the four weekends but the trend was not as significant.

Nick Cater (interview, 4 May 2011) provides some insight into these spikes,

indicating the use of narrative style is a conscious decision in the production of The

Weekend Australian. He said the paper was careful and purposeful in its use of narrative

journalism, in part because of the resource implications and also because it appeared to

go against what he and others still considered the ‘‘core’’ function of a newspaper: to

break news and give readers the facts. However, he said it was also important for his

editorial team to be aware that the way people read on the weekend was fundamentally

different to a weekday approach to news:

We’re now in an info-rich, text-rich era. People could read everything they need to from

the paper online. We need to look at why people buy the paper: One reason is that it

provides a pleasant, enjoyable reading experience, instead of a dutiful one . . .During the

FIGURE 1

Narrative style, by day of the week (% of news)

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week, people seem to read the news because they have to*for work, or even for social

reasons. But on a weekend, they’re prepared to devote more time to stories.

Context: Journalist Shedding

To put the results of this analysis in context, it is important to note that at the time

of the study newsrooms were operating within increasingly tight resourcing constraints.

‘‘Journalist shedding’’ (downsizing newsrooms to offset major circulation drops and a

dramatic fall in advertising revenue) was common in the US and British media landscape

between 2000 and 2009 (see, for example, Hodierne, 2009), and the effects of the global

financial crisis were also felt in Australian newsrooms. The most noteworthy example was

Fairfax Media’s August 2008 decision to cut 550 jobs in Australia and New Zealand

(Steffens, 2008). These cuts represented about 5 percent of Fairfax’s workforce and about a

third of the axed positions were editorial (ABC Premium News, 2008).

While News Ltd’s staff was not as overtly affected, the company faced similar

challenges during this period. In November 2008, Rupert Murdoch announced he would

shed an undisclosed number of jobs from his Australian and British newsrooms, after

shares dropped to the worst level in 11 years (McLennan, 2008). This was followed by

further ‘‘headcount reductions’’ in February 2009 (ABC, 2009). As part of its efforts to

streamline costs, the company appeared to specifically target feature writing: in March

2009 a national features editor was appointed to improve content-sharing amongst News

Ltd’s papers (Oakes, 2009) and in April of that year a portal was established to give

Australian journalists better access to content developed by the company’s overseas

newspapers and television stations (Steffens, 2009). While newspapers such as The

Australian had previously used such material, the portal formalised and intensified

content-sharing arrangements.

While we were unable to locate empirical studies to assess the impact of this change

on newspapers in Australia, the Pew Research Center’s report, ‘‘The Changing Newsroom’’

(Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism, 2008), provides an interesting analysis of the

North American situation. The project interviewed and surveyed senior executives and

staff from more than 250 American newspapers in an attempt to assess the impact of job

cuts on journalists and newspaper content. One of the key findings was that the space

and resources allocated to world and national news, arts, business and science dropped

significantly and events that had previously been covered by staff reporters were instead

sourced from the wires. The number of stories in papers did not seem to have fallen, but

the length of stories had been significantly reduced. And while investigative journalism

was rated as ‘‘very essential’’ or ‘‘somewhat essential’’ by 91 percent of editors, they

admitted that as these stories were labour intensive, they were more selective in the kind

of stories to which they chose to devote resources.

Editors also said that in order to differentiate themselves from other papers and

online content, there was a return to local news and identifying issues that were of

concern and importance to readers.

Together these two elements*shorter news stories and richer enterprise*reflect part of

a new, evolving role of the print newspaper in an era of growing online access to news

virtually as it happens. In this environment, the role of the print edition of daily

newspapers is becoming less a vehicle to convey news developments and more a source

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for analysis, texture and context to help readers better understand those developments.

(Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism, 2008)

Indeed, the increased use of comment/column style, as well as elements of context

or commentary appearing in inverted pyramid stories, supports this claim.

The Story Behind the Stories

The fall in narrative news might be attributable to many things. Firstly, we note it

occurred in the same period as jobs were shed, particularly at The Sydney Morning Herald,

where the number of narrative stories was reduced the most. While the study did not set

out to correlate the use of narrative structures and newspaper staffing, we can look more

broadly at the newspaper environment and suggest some connections.

A possible reason for adoption of narrative techniques in conventional news

reporting may come from the redeployment of feature writers into news sections.

Journalist shedding targeted feature writers, who might naturally bring with them a

narrative approach to news. Additionally, the impact of journalist shedding, and the

subsequent impact on workloads and responsibilities, may also mean newspapers are

using hybrid forms as a way to access some of the reader engagement associated with

narrative journalism without the time and labour costs of a fully-formed narrative article.

Marr (interview, 15 June 2011) said while there was support for narrative journalism

from writers, he had noticed a dramatic shift in newspapers’ attitudes towards this style

over the last 15 years, with resources cited as a major factor in this shift:

I think there’s now less opportunity than there once was for full-scale investigation. For

example, the big story in 2007 was the imprisonment of [Dr Mohamed] Haneef. I went to

Brisbane for that story and wrote a series of narrative constructions, some of which were

4000�5000 words. Even four years later, I think those kind of opportunities for longer

reports are very rare . . .

Fewer staff might also have a correlation with a greater reliance on news agency

copy. There is a solid body of literature which tells us news agency copy is on the rise in

media outlets globally (see, for example, Johnston and Forde, 2011; Lewis et al., 2008; Pew

Project for Excellence in Journalism, 2010). Cater (interview, 4 May 2011) advised that

newspapers still sought out original stories and that wire copy was limited: ‘‘[They’re] very

useful, but anything from the wire is always verified with our own investigation or clearly

attribute[d] to the wire service in question. We have to create information off our own

back because we want exclusivity.’’ Nevertheless, others, including the Pew Research

Center’s findings, above, suggest differently, in some media at least. While the sample

showed a reduction in wholly written narrative news stories, it also showed an increase in

hybrid narrative news stories which could be attributed to wire service copy being used as

a base and altered by the paper. The Australian Associated Press notes on its website that

copy can be used ‘‘As the trunk of a story which is then localised by the customer with

their own sourced quotes and comments’’ (Australian Associated Press, 2011).

Though the number of narrative stories is down from the 2007 study, coupled with

column/comment figures which are slightly up, the sample suggests a significant

proportion of the news pages are not written in inverted pyramid structure, which

notably follows a much earlier recommendation followed by Denton et al. (1993).

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Together with narrative, comment and column pieces represent a trend toward greater

subjectivity in the front end of the paper. Our data supports the Pew Research Center

observation that newspapers are becoming ‘‘a source for analysis, texture and context’’

(Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism, 2010). This is also consistent with Jack’s (2006)

observation from the United Kingdom that newspapers have adopted a higher percentage

of comment attributable to cost-cutting and journalist shedding.

Cater sees this merging of categories between news and comment as one to view

cautiously, confirming concerns noted by Jack. While supporting a place for narrative,

Cater added:

In many ways narrative journalism goes against what I and a lot of others consider to be

the core business of journalism: breaking news, and giving readers the facts straight up.

A newspaper remains just that*a newspaper. Narrative journalism drifts away from that

imperative and the risk is that it drifts into commentary.

While Weldon had found a significant increase in narrative news in American

newspapers between 2001 and 2004, we are not aware of any studies since Weldon’s to

confirm if this trend has continued in the United States since 2004. Our 2007 study found

Australian newspapers include about half the number of narrative news stories in the

news pages as Weldon’s 2004 findings showed. Our second sample showed this to be

reduced yet again. We can certainly say that, based on these studies, Australia has not

embraced narrative news writing in the same way as the North Americans. However, the

absence of any contemporaneous research globally makes real comparisons impossible: a

broad international study could provide a true and useful picture of the use of narrative in

news pages.

While some journalists suggest the use of narrative writing styles engages readers and

keeps them reading newspapers, and Denton et al.’s 1993 study indicated this, there do not

appear to be any recent studies to support this contention. However, Cater (interview, 4 May

2011) said there was worthwhile anecdotal feedback on this: ‘‘I think long-form narrative

stories definitely resonate with readers. We have some evidence of this through letters, and

some anecdotal evidence*which is actually quite a reliable guide.’’ Marr (interview, 15 June

2011) agreed, saying: ‘‘I think people do respond to narrative journalism.’’

Moreover, Marr suggests that even if newspapers did not have the resources to

support long-form narrative journalism to the same degree as in the past, there were other

ways to ensure this audience was satisfied. He believes short novels and essays exploring

current events have found an alternative market in recent years, citing literary journal

Quarterly Essay as an example, and suggests more narrative journalists should spread

themselves over multiple publications in future. Ricketson (interview, 23 June 2011)

supports these observations, adding that this is, in part, a result of the trend towards

shorter, ‘‘thinner’’ features and more news and celebrity-driven content in many

newspapers’ weekend magazines. This seems to represent a separation of print styles

into niche readerships and one which warrants further, separate exploration. In effect, this

suggests something of a return to the nineteenth-century journalism in journals which

pre-dates the mass culture of contemporary daily news (Campbell, 2000).

These insights resonate with many of our findings, indicating reporting increasingly

requires diverse approaches; the versatile journalist must be one who can easily turn their

hand to a range of styles. While narrative may not be the dominant structure for news in

Australia, it clearly has a place in hardcopy newspapers. The fostering of this writing style

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surely demands space in the academy and newspaper training grounds to ensure

newspaper journalists have as many tools as possible in the changing and challenging

media space in which they report the news.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors would like to acknowledge the Journalism Studies reviewers’ positive and

constructive feedback.

NOTE

1. There is significant ongoing discussion of the terms narrative journalism, literary

journalism, reportage and creative nonfiction within the literature. Key texts include

Hartsock (2007) and Sims (2008). We use each author’s preferred terminology while

acknowledging they are often used interchangeably.

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