Newspapers from coast to coast, large and small, have experimented with extended narrative techniques. Most have been successful. All created new reader interest and excitement in the newsroom.

“Readers ate it up,” said Thomas Oliver, special projects editor of The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution. The newspaper’s six-part  “Nine Minutes, 20 Seconds” was told largely in narrative form. The series, written in November by Gary Pomerantz, recreated the drama of a 1995 plane crash in which a number of people on board survived and told their stories. “We had over 400 e-mails and letters,” Oliver said. “A recurring statement (from readers) was one I have been waiting for all my career: ‘I couldn’t wait to get the next day’s newspaper!’ ”

Tom French, a reporter for the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, has been writing extended narratives for 12 years. His personal efforts have been an inspiration to many. French’s 1997 project, “Angels and Demons,” won last year’s Pulitzer Prize for feature reporting. The 10-part series chronicled the tragic deaths of three Florida tourists and the efforts to find the killer.

“Narratives are a really good tool for bringing people into the paper,” French told an API seminar in Pomona, Calif., in December. “When a narrative really works, we find that new readers find their way into the newspaper.”

Jan Winburn, an assistant managing editor at The Sun in Baltimore who also spoke at the seminar, has overseen a number of narrative projects, and has quantified the power of the form. She said that the Sun’s 16-day narrative “God’s Other Plan” — about a woman’s fight against cancer — was a circulation success. The Sun heavily promoted the series, and on the Sunday in January 1997 that the story started, single-copy sales jumped 9,500. On the final day sales were up 7,000. In all, circulation spiked 3 percent during the series.

“People were waiting anxiously to see what would happen next,” Winburn said. “We got everyone in town talking about the same thing. A reader remarked that hasn’t happened in Baltimore since the Colts left town.”

Winburn said that in a day when people get headlines and other information from electronic sources, narrative storytelling is something that is best done by newspapers: “The storytelling magazines — the Saturday Evening Post, Collier’s — are all gone. The field is left open to us.”

Reporter Ken Fuson, Winburn’s colleague at the Sun, is also a strong proponent. “(Storytelling) is a tool, but will it save newspapers?” he asked at the Missouri workshop. “I doubt it — but I’d like to try it. I’m not saying get rid of the objective, inverted pyramid stuff. Let’s add some of this to it, because readers show us they like it.”

Curt Hazlett, managing editor of the Portland (Maine) Press Herald, found that while many readers appreciated the form, “perhaps many more hated it” when his newspaper published “A Stolen Soul,” in mid-1998. The series by Pulitzer winner Barbara Walsh, was about the murder of a man from a interracial marriage and his mother’s fight for justice. It ran in 28 parts, with each installment on the front page. Some readers said they tired of the length and its Page 1 play.

“There is no model for this,” Hazlett said. “Many in the newsroom felt it went on too long.” Readers said the same thing. We should have taken into account the restlessness of readers, he said. “But there was a certain addictive quality to it all.”

Hazlett, who noted that the newspaper received more than 400 e-mails and calls on the series, said the staff learned from the experience. “We need to consider doing more but doing them differently.”

Unlike Hazlett, writing coach Susan White found a more receptive audience when The San Diego Union-Tribune published “The Toy Maker,” a 15-part series, in late 1997. The series traced the odyssey of a San Diego businessman and the toy he set out to create and market.

The series prompted 650 calls to a special line set up in the newsroom. About 285 left lengthy messages, mostly positive.

“The story was special. It was a gift to the reader,” White said. “It was also a special kick-up for the newsroom. It raises the bar. It gives attention to the reporter. It shines a new light on them.”

And it’s infectious.

Bob Baker, assistant city editor and writing coach of the Los Angeles Times, said that narrative projects at his newspaper “empower other people to try new things. It gets people to think more about what they do.”

White said that using narrative technique in the San Diego newsroom has resulted in better communication. “Editors are forced out of a routine. We learn that every reporter has a different style, so our editing is better. We talk more,” she said.

“With reporters, you’re teaching a new tool. It’s like breaking a horse. But it’s the ultimate mental pickup.”

White said the learning process can be arduous but the payoff substantial. “It takes a stretch to do it right. It’s a marathon that depends not on your muscles, but on your heart,” she said.

But it all comes back to the reader. All agree the effort is worth it. Oliver in Atlanta found that people have plenty of time to read. “They will make the time to read a newspaper if we give them something to sink their teeth into.” A special connection with readers is the special heart of narrative storytelling — and potentially the biggest payoff.

Winburn was more philosophical. “It’s the way life itself unfolds. We don’t know what will happen next until we plod on. The newspaper can use narratives to connect with the reader in a way other stories don’t,” Winburn said.

Added Oliver, “Narratives are inbred into our consciousness. Relatives of passengers wrote to say they finally under-stood what their loved ones had been through.”

Watson is an associate director at the American Press Institute in Reston, Va.