.=--Akin to man's love for any account that involves
large loss of human life, is his love of any story that tells about a
huge loss of property. The mere figures seem to have a charm; any story
that can begin with awesome figures, like "Two million dollars," "One
hundred automobiles," "Ten city blocks," has news value. Hence any story
that involves a large loss that can be expressed in figures has the
power to carry a great distance.

=7. Unusualness.=--It is safe to say that newspaper readers are
interested in anything unusual. It does not matter whether it is a
thing, a person, an action, a misfortune; so long as it is strange and
out of the range of ordinary lives, it is interesting. Many, if not
most, newspaper stories have nothing but the element of strangeness in
them to give them news value, but if they are sufficiently strange and
unusual they may be copied all over the country. An unusual origin or an
unusual rescue will give an unimportant fire great news value. And so
with every other kind of story.

=8. Human Interest.=--Along with the element of the strange and unusual,
goes the human interest element. Any story that will make us laugh or
make us cry has news value. Hundreds of magazines are issued monthly
with nothing in them but fictitious stories that are intended to arouse
our emotions, and newspapers are beginning to realize that they can
interest their readers in the same way. No life is so prosaic that it is
not full of incidents that make one laugh or cry, and when these
stories can be told in a way that will make any reader feel the same
emotions, they have news value that will carry them a long distance.
Obviously their success depends very largely upon the way they are told.

=9. Personal Appeal.=--Another element that may give a story news value
is that of personal appeal or application to the reader's own daily
life. Men are primarily egoistic and selfish and nothing interests them
more than things that affect them personally. They can read complacently
and without interest of the misfortunes and joys of others, but just as
soon as anything affects their own daily lives, even a little, they want
to hear about it. Perhaps the price of butter has gone up a few cents or
the gas company has reduced its rates from eighty cents to
seventy-seven. Every reader is interested at once, for the news affects
his own daily life. Sometimes this personal appeal is due merely to the
reader's familiarit