Editor's letter: Europe needs narrative journalism

"The women, who usually go for milk to the cowkeepers in the villages round the city, were not able to go along with their pails on their heads; and one that was more hardy than the rest, was blown away by the fury of the storm..."

Thus, some say, narrative journalism (writing that reads like a short story except that it is true) was born in London in 1703. Daniel Defoe's piece is often known simply as "The Storm".

The genre was born in Europe but today it's American. Why? Why is there so much less of it in European magazines, papers, supplements and websites?

First, cost. Comment is cheap but facts are rather expensive, wrote the great reporter Ian Jack. Media markets in Europe, fragmented by language, are too small to fund narrative journalism. Second, European cultures tend to devalue journalism as a serious creative profession. Third, European universities and journalism schools don't teach narrative journalism. Fourth, European feature journalism is overwhelmingly about what the journalist thinks (rather than sees).

These thoughts are not mine. They're the result of a year's study by a Finnish journalist, Anu Nousiainen, for the Reuters Institute in Oxford. She's right, too, when she says we need narrative journalism because we need to be better at attracting readers. Staying informed should be enjoyable, not a struggle. For more on how Newsweek has been attempting to do this, visit www.newsweekinsights.com