A feature story is a piece of non-fiction writing about news covering a single topic in detail. A feature story is a type of soft news, primarily focused on entertainment rather than a higher level of professionalism. The main subtypes are the news feature and the human-interest story.

A feature story is distinguished from other types of non-news stories by the quality of the writing. They should be memorable for their reporting, crafting, creativity, and economy of expression. Unlike news reports that mainly focus on factual evidence, feature stories tend to be subjective. Features vary in style, focus, and structure but overall, maintain an entertaining tone rather than a strictly informative one.

A feature story differs from straight news reporting. It normally presents newsworthy events and information through a narrative story, complete with a plot and story characters. It differs from a short story primarily in that the content is not fictional. Like literature, the feature story relies upon creativity and subjectivity to make an emotional connection with the readers. It may also highlight some universal aspects of human nature. Unlike straight news, the feature story serves the purpose of entertaining the readers, in addition to informing them. Although truthful and based on good facts, they are less objective than straight news.

Unlike straight news, the subject of a feature story is usually not time sensitive. It generally features good news.

Feature stories are usually written in an active style, with an emphasis on lively, entertaining prose. Some forms, such as a color story, uses description as the main mode.

Feature stories are stories with only one feature, but are creative and true. While the distinction between published features and news is often clear, when approached conceptually there are few hard boundaries between the two. It is quite possible to write a feature story in the style of a news story. Nevertheless, features do tend to take a more narrative approach, perhaps using opening paragraphs as scene-setting narrative hooks instead of the delivery of the most important facts. A feature story can be in a news article, a newspaper, and even online. News stories focus on facts about an event whereas feature stories analyze the significance of an event.

The feature is one of the most wide-ranging categories of journalism appearing in more than just newspaper articles. A feature tells more than just a story. It emphasizes a certain tone, whether that be entertaining, humorous, saddening, serious or light. It involves and engages readers to the creative, subjective, informative, or entering aspects of the article, differing from informative news.

Among sports writers, features tend to be either human-interest stories or personality profiles of sports figures. A profile presents information about a person, but it differs from a biography by focusing on the person's personality or anecdotes, rather than the factual data about birth, education, or major achievements. Features may also cover aspects of business, political matters, media and entertainment, etc. The level of seriousness and characteristics differing it from hard news can range.