http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/28/world/asia/28scene.html?_r=1&ref=world
The story is about the recent terrorist attacks on the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai. While it may seem to be a typical hard news story, the article begins anecdotally, chronicling the night of a couple getting married at the hotel the night of the attacks.
The lead reads:
"For Amit and Varsha Thadani, Wednesday night in the Crystal Ballroom of the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower Hotel was supposed to be a night they would treasure forever: the lavish start of a life together, with a wedding reception for over 200 family and friends."
The nut graph immediately follows, recounting the specific times and locations of the very first gunshots in the building.
The story progresses in an atypical format; it follows the structure of the Wall Street Journal formula most closely but not exactly since it ends on a different anecdotal lead than the one with which it begins. Overall, however, I think that it adheres mainly to this formula since it begins anecdotally, progresses into harder facts, and ends anecdotally.
I found this to be extremely effective because it gave a more humanistic perspective to a story that could have been strictly hard news. I do think it is important, however, to include some hard news facts in a story like this, and I finished reading the article not really knowing any specific details about what had happened in Mumbai last week. Although the story was captivating and easy to read, I thought that the author should have included some details of the event itself and not just the people whom it affected.
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