# How brand feature stories run on local news sites

Source: https://trynewsusa.com/local-news-feature-story-study
Published by NewsUSA. Updated 2026-11-09.

> Short answer: We looked at 218 sponsored feature stories on 14 US local news sites, first published August 1 to October 31, 2026. The median story ran 585 words and the middle half ran 468 to 712. 201 of the 208 stories we could read had a photo. Home and garden and health were the most common topics. 109 stories first went up on a Sunday or Monday, and holiday-season stories were running by late September.

**Read this knowing who wrote it.** NewsUSA publishes this page and supplies feature stories of this kind, and some of its own stories are in the sample. The study is about the stories, not who supplied them: it names no news site and no supplier, and it does not compare suppliers.

## What we found

- **Length.** The median story ran 585 words. The middle half ran 468 to 712 words, and 111 of 208 stories (53%) fell between 450 and 700.
- **Photos.** 201 of 208 stories ran with at least one photo, and 193 had a lead photo above the story. 89 had no photo inside the story text itself.
- **Topics.** Home and garden (41) and health (41) led, then personal finance (24), food and drink (18) and education and careers (17).
- **Publishing day.** 109 of 218 stories first went up on a Sunday or a Monday. Only 5 first went up on a Saturday.
- **Seasonal timing.** Holiday-season stories were already running by September 21. 8 of the 9 were first dated October 8 to 28, 8 to 11 weeks before Christmas.
- **Headlines.** The median headline ran 10 words. 65 of 218 contained a number, 54 spoke to the reader with "you" or "your", and 15 asked a question.
- **One feed, many sites.** 208 of 218 stories ran on 13 or all 14 of the sites, which take these stories from one shared feed.

## How long the stories run

Most stories sat between 400 and 800 words. Food pieces ran shortest: 7 of the 12 shortest stories were food pieces. Explainers ran longest: 10 of the 14 longest were about health, money or technology. Counts are of 208 stories whose text we could read.

| Length | Stories |
|---|---|
| Under 300 words | 15 |
| 300 to 399 words | 14 |
| 400 to 499 words | 31 |
| 500 to 599 words | 53 |
| 600 to 699 words | 39 |
| 700 to 799 words | 22 |
| 800 to 899 words | 12 |
| 900 or more words | 22 |

Word counts of 208 stories. Median 585, middle half 468 to 712.

![Bar chart of sponsored feature stories by length: under 300 words 15, 300 to 399 words 14, 400 to 499 words 31, 500 to 599 words 53, 600 to 699 words 39, 700 to 799 words 22, 800 to 899 words 12, 900 or more words 22. The median was 585 words. Source: NewsUSA study of 14 US local news sites, August to October 2026.](https://trynewsusa.com/charts/study-story-length.png)

For a story you are writing, aim for roughly 450 to 700 words, the range the [feature story template](https://trynewsusa.com/feature-story-template) uses. The [feature story checker](https://trynewsusa.com/feature-story-checker) flags a draft that is far outside it.

## Photos

Almost every story ran with a photo: 201 of 208. The usual layout was one photo at the top of the story (193 stories), with more photos inside the text in 119. Food stories carried the most, 2.3 photos inside the text on average against 1.2 for all stories. Send a clear photo that shows the subject of the story, with a plain caption and the rights to use it.

## Topics

Practical, everyday subjects dominate. 16 stories fit none of the topics below. Each story has one topic, set by keyword rules and then checked by an AI model, so treat the counts as approximate.

![Bar chart of sponsored feature stories by topic: home and garden 41, health 41, personal finance 24, food and drink 18, education and careers 17, travel and outdoors 11, community and nonprofit 10, seasonal and holidays 10, cars 9, technology 8, pets 7, family and parenting 6. Source: NewsUSA study of 14 US local news sites, August to October 2026.](https://trynewsusa.com/charts/study-topics.png)

## When stories go up

109 of 218 stories first went up on a Sunday or a Monday, and very few on a Saturday. The date is the publication date each site stamped on the story, in its own time zone; when a story ran on several sites, we used the earliest.

![Bar chart of sponsored feature stories by the weekday they first went up: Monday 54, Tuesday 32, Wednesday 27, Thursday 26, Friday 19, Saturday 5, Sunday 55. Source: NewsUSA study of 14 US local news sites, August to October 2026.](https://trynewsusa.com/charts/study-weekday.png)

## Seasonal stories run early

Stories tied to a season went up well ahead of it. The one Halloween story was first dated October 4, 27 days before Halloween. The one Thanksgiving story was first dated October 14, 6 weeks before Thanksgiving. Holiday-season stories were running by September 21.

| Headlines that mention | Stories | First dated | Last dated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Holiday season ("holiday") | 9 | September 21 | October 28 |
| Fall ("fall") | 11 | August 21 | October 30 |
| Cold and flu season ("flu") | 4 | September 27 | October 19 |
| Back to school ("back to school", "school year" or "school mornings") | 4 | August 11 | October 6 |
| Summer ("summer") | 7 | August 8 | September 3 |

First publication date of each story, in the window August 1 to October 31, 2026.

The sections we read list only their most recent stories, so earlier seasonal stories may have rolled off before we looked. Read "first dated" as "already running by." To plan your own dates, use the [2027 feature story calendar](https://trynewsusa.com/feature-story-calendar-2027); the [story angle finder](https://trynewsusa.com/story-angle-finder) suggests an approve-by date for each dated moment.

## Headlines

- The median headline ran 10 words; the middle half ran 8 to 12.
- 65 of 218 headlines contained a number, often a list ("5 ways", "4 tips").
- 54 spoke to the reader with "you" or "your", and 27 contained "how to".
- Only 15 asked a question.

## How we did the study

- **Where.** 14 US local news sites that each have a section of syndicated brand feature stories. Thirteen belong to one newspaper group; the fourteenth carries the same feed. We read that section only, not the rest of each site.
- **When.** We collected the stories on November 6, 2026 and kept those first published August 1 to October 31, 2026: 218 stories and 2,907 appearances, one for each story on each site.
- **How.** An automated script made ordinary page requests at a slow, fixed rate, with a user agent that names this site. It followed each site's robots.txt, did not log in, and did not read article text a site keeps for subscribers.
- **Length and photos.** Counted on the copies whose text was readable without a subscription: 208 stories. Five more were a single image with no text and five had no readable copy; they are left out of these counts.
- **Topics.** One topic per story, from keyword rules over the headline and opening, then a review of every headline by an AI model (Claude), which changed 55. Treat topic counts as approximate.
- **Duplicates.** One story is one headline. The same story on several sites counts once. Translated and state-specific versions with different headlines count as separate stories.

## Limits

- This is a sample, not a census. The sections list only recent stories, so busy topics reach back days and quiet ones months. Do not read the month counts as a trend: we found 34 in August, 82 in September, 102 in October, mostly because older stories had rolled off. The same goes for the topic counts, because the older months come mostly from slower sections.
- The 14 sites share one feed, so the study shows what that feed carried, not 14 separate editorial choices. It may not describe sites that pick stories one at a time.
- Dates are as each site stamped them. A site may restamp a story.
- Length and photo counts come from two sites' layouts; the same story can look different elsewhere.

## Use this data

The figures, the CSV and the charts may be reused with a link to this page. [Download the figures (.csv)](https://trynewsusa.com/local-news-feature-story-study-2026.csv).

## Cite this page

## Questions

### How long is a typical sponsored feature story?

In our study of 208 sponsored feature stories on US local news sites, the median ran 585 words and the middle half ran 468 to 712 words. Roughly 450 to 700 words is a safe target.

### Do sponsored feature stories run with photos?

Almost always. 201 of the 208 stories we could read ran with at least one photo, and 193 had a lead photo above the story.

### What topics do sponsored feature stories cover?

Mostly practical, everyday subjects. In our sample of 218, home and garden (41) and health (41) led, then personal finance, food and drink, and education and careers.

### How early do holiday feature stories run?

Early. In our sample, holiday-season stories were already running by September 21, and 8 of 9 were first dated October 8 to 28, 8 to 11 weeks before Christmas. Plan to approve a holiday story by early October.

### Which sites and companies are in the study?

The study does not name them. It covers 14 US local news sites that share one feed of syndicated brand features, 13 of them owned by one newspaper group. It is about the stories, not who supplied them.

## How this page was made

Collected by NewsUSA on November 6, 2026 from 14 US local news sites, with a script that followed each site's robots.txt and read only public pages. Every figure on this page is computed from that dataset by the same build that writes the page, so the page and the CSV always agree. Site and supplier names are kept in our files and not published.