A Guide to Alternative Story Formats

With ten examples

A Guide to Alternative Story Formats

By Lilly Kersh

There are endless ways to tell a story. Journalists are very familiar with the basics: static newspaper spreads, charts and graphs, long chunks of copy and social media graphics all make up the bread and butter of displaying our reporting. But when we add creativity and innovation to the mix, journalists can increase interest and impact by devising new ways to tell stories. This guide features ten examples of alternative story formatting and tips and tricks to apply the best design practices for storytelling in new ways.

In a study conducted with eye-tracking software, The Poynter Institute found that alternative story forms drew more reader attention and helped readers remember more facts compared to regular texts.

Source: The Poynter Institute, “Alternative Story Forms are Effective”

10 Examples of Alternative Story Formats

01.

Games

One of the main objectives of alternative story formats is to draw the audience in and create heightened interest. Interactive games allow readers to become active players in concepts from the news. This example from The New York Times shows how journalists used the game format to explain a relevant but confusing subject: gerrymandering. While traditional formats may have included a written explainer of gerrymandering with static maps to visualize the concept, this format allows the audience to experience how it works for themselves.

Source: The New York Times
Source: The Atlanta Journal Constitution

02.

Polls

Alternative story forms are not just for online design. Innovative storytelling has benefits for print, too. In this example, The Atlanta Journal Constitution uses the results of a poll to support their stories with evidence of public opinion. The static design uses contrasting colors and organization to distinguish the poll results in a graphic. But the results are also discussed in the traditional news story format. A pull out is used in the bottom left corner of the spread to highlight a particularly important poll result.

A couple of takeaways can come from this example. First, effective design will include the interpretation and contextualization of data. The AJC accomplishes this by discussing the results in the copy of the story, while also including them in the form of the graphic. Second, transparency is key. The AJC uses a third party to conduct the poll, thus ensuring that the poll is free from their own bias.

According to adjunct professor and AJC editor Rick Crotts, alternative story formats can…

Maximize readers’ time through presentation

Improve the pacing of storytelling

Draw the audience in to the story

Divide information into bite-size chunks

Source: Rick Crotts

03.

Pull-outs

Static design can also make use of alternative story formatting with the more general pull-out structure. This can be used in many forms, as pictured on the right with examples from the AJC. These pull-outs include a fact and figure box, a “why it matters” explainer, a “what’s next” pull-out, instructions for how to get involved, a “quick hits” list and more. These supplement more traditionally designed stories and make use of design principles of contrast and hierarchy to convey important information.

Source: The Atlanta Journal Constitution

Alternative story forms challenge journalists to abandon the inverted pyramid structure and display information differently.

Inverted pyramid structure

  • Most important information
  • Next important information
  • Less important information
  • Less important information
  • Less important information

Potential alternative story form structure

  • Overview, central point
  • Subpoint
  • Subpoint
  • Subpoint
  • Ending (maybe)

Source: Rick Crotts

Source: Zaborona

04.

Manual/How-To

Manual-style story formats allow readers to learn how to get involved in news events. They are informative and encourage participation from the audience. The example on the left comes from a Ukrainian news website, Zaborona, that also features excellent examples of visual storytelling. The story at left is a set of instructions for how to get involved in the fight against Russia.

05.

Comic

Comics are engaging ways to keep readers entertained. Although they require a professional illustrator to create the drawings, they can be very effective at telling a story visually and with narrative elements. In this example, a journalist tells the story of an immigrant’s journey in America and the challenges they face. The comic format was particularly effective here because the subject’s real photo could not be used.

Source: WCPO Cincinnati
Source: AP News

Instead of a traditional inverted pyramid story explaining the potential nominees for the Supreme Court, AP News made use of the alternative biography format to tell the story. This is a clear way to explain a news story in which multiple players and their identities have a key role that readers should understand.

06.

Biography

5 Steps to Creating an Alternative Story Format

  • BRAINSTORM with other key players like photographers, reporters, editors, designers and others
  • SKETCH ideas for print and online
  • REPORT by editing ideas, planning, writing the content first and organizing
  • EDIT and remember content over form. Keep hierarchy, storyboarding and the unexpected in mind
  • EXECUTE and determine the best way to tell the story. Consider using templates

Source: Rick Crotts

07.

Q&A

The question and answer format is a common alternative to a typical story. It allows the subject of the story to convey a lot of information in their own words. For this format, the journalist conducting the interview needs to pay special attention to asking focused questions that will illicit a compelling answer. This example from GQ with Robert Pattinson is well known for its unusual content and creative take on the Q&A. A more artistic approach is taken and the result is an arguably more unique and introspective look at Pattinson’s persona ahead of his starring role as Batman in The Batman. The attention to detail and honest conversation make it an interesting read.

Source: GQ

08.

Timeline

Sometimes journalists must make sense of a confusing set of events. This was the case when reporters at The New York Times were challenged with explaining what led to the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and how the attack played out. The example embeds footage, photos, social media posts, original reporting and maps to tell the story in an immersive and compelling way. With a vast array of visual information, the audience can grasp on to the facts easier than if the story was told in text only.

09.

Illustrations

It can be difficult to attract readers’ attention on digital platforms for long-form stories. We are accustomed to the fast pace and attention-grabbing format of social media. The New Yorker used an alternative story format to combat this challenge in the below example. Similar to the comic format, this story uses illustrations to convey information about Uighur camps in China. This is an important news story that may not capture the attention of readers right away. The New Yorker also does not have their own photos of the camps. They relied on the accounts of sources to illustrate the reality in China in a five chapter, illustrated digital story. The example also uses “scrolly-telling,” or a story that is navigated by scrolling down through the content.

Source: The New Yorker

SHOW

don’t

TELL

Source: The Pudding

Graphs and charts are nothing new to the field of journalism. Reporter’s use data visualizations frequently to show evidence in their reporting. But the way that we visualize data can be reimagined with alternative story formats. The Pudding is a site that creates visual essays with data in innovative ways. The above example uses a series of interactive charts to analyze the vocabulary of rap music. By using alternatives to traditional and static data visualizations, The Pudding conveys information more effectively. With data especially, readers can have trouble understanding complex news topics. It is up to journalists to translate these concepts effectively. ASFs can be essential to doing so digitally.

10.

Data Visualization and Graphics

An Iteration of Alternative Story Formatting

The timeline format can be used to tell a story in an alternative way. It deviates from the inverted pyramid structure and allows for more interaction with the content. In the linked example, the history of discriminatory rules for women is shown through a slideshow timeline, made with KnightLab. Readers can understand the chronology of the story in a way that allows for more visual interest, user control and structure than traditional copy.

Click on the image above to explore an iteration of an alternative story format

ASFs and the Future of Journalism

To survive in the digital age, news organizations and journalists need to rethink traditional design and formatting and adapt to the changing pressures of the limited time and attention of readers. By using alternative story formats, journalists can cater to the public while still providing quality reporting on important subjects. These examples and tips are only the beginning. Government scorecards, pro and con lists, story so far blurbs, comparison grids, hot sheets and lark boxes are all other examples of alternative story formats (Rick Crotts). These examples can enhance reader experiences, generate more interest in the news, help support local and national news organizations and create a larger impact on consumers of the news. It’s up to journalists to rethink the way we share stories.

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