What Does the Features Section Cover on a Local News Site?
The features section of a local news site covers longer, human-interest and lifestyle stories rather than breaking news or routine public-safety items. On a site like EA Media (eacourier.com), which serves Safford, Arizona and the surrounding areas, "features" is one of the site's own listed content categories, alongside local news, arts, entertainment, business, new faces, for the record, schools, opinions, and editorials. You'll find features by looking for that section label in the site's navigation or category listings, then browsing the recent headlines under it. The rest of this article explains what typically appears there, how features differ from news and opinion, and how to read them efficiently.
What counts as a feature
A feature is a reported story built around people, places, or experiences rather than an event's immediate facts. It usually runs longer than a news brief and is written to be read at leisure. Typical feature subjects include:
- Profiles — a look at a local resident, business owner, artist, or volunteer and what they do.
- Arts and entertainment — exhibits, performances, festivals, and the people behind them.
- Community events — fairs, fundraisers, school traditions, and seasonal gatherings.
- Health and lifestyle — practical topics framed around local people and resources.
- Local history and place — how a town, building, or institution came to be.
On EA Media's site, "features" sits next to "arts" and "entertainment," which tells you the section leans toward culture and community storytelling rather than hard news.
How features differ from news, blotter, and opinion
The same site publishes several kinds of content, and the differences matter when you're deciding what to read.
| Type | Focus | Typical length and tone |
|---|---|---|
| Breaking/local news | Events, decisions, incidents | Short to medium; factual, timely |
| Blotter / "for the record" | Arrests, citations, incident summaries | Very short; list-like |
| Features | People, culture, lifestyle, history | Longer; narrative, descriptive |
| Editorials / opinions | Arguments and viewpoints | Medium; persuasive, signed or staff-written |
A concrete contrast from the site's own headlines: "Child in underwear, tire slashing lead Graham County blotter" is a blotter roundup — a compact list of incidents. A feature would instead spend its length on, for example, the story of a longtime Safford shop owner or the history of a local festival. Both are local; only one is built around a person or experience.
How to find and read features on a local news site
- Open the site's main navigation. Look for a "Features" link, or a "Life," "Arts," or "Entertainment" category that houses feature stories.
- Scan the section's headline list. Feature headlines tend to name a person, place, or theme rather than an incident ("New faces," profiles, seasonal pieces).
- Check the byline and length. Features carry a reporter's byline and a longer read time; the site labels short items with read-time notes like "2 min to read."
- Use the category tags. EA Media tags content by section, so a story filed under features or arts will stay grouped with similar pieces.
- Expect a paywall or subscription prompt on some stories. The site links to a subscribe page, so not every article may be fully open — check before assuming free access.
What to expect as a result: you'll land on narrative stories about local people and culture, not incident reports or opinion columns.
Common snags
- Features and "arts/entertainment" overlap. A concert preview may be filed under either; if you don't see it in one, check the other.
- Blotter items can look like features at a glance. If the headline lists multiple incidents, it's a roundup, not a feature.
- Subscription limits. Some content sits behind a subscribe link, so a headline you can see may not open in full without an account.
Where features fit alongside other sections
Think of a local news site as a set of complementary lenses on the same community. News and blotter tell you what happened; sports covers teams and scores; business covers commerce; opinions and editorials argue a position; and features tell you who the people are and what life here is like. Reading features alongside the other sections gives you context that a single news brief can't — the background on the names and places that show up in the news.