A journalism trainer has urged publishers to preserve the future of feature writing amid cuts across the industry.

Lee Marlow, who teaches at De Montfort University, has called on media owners to recognise the “value” of features to their operations.

Lee, himself a former award-winning feature writer with the Leicester Mercury, has made the plea after The Guardian became the latest news organisation to reveal it will be cutting editorial jobs due to the fallout from the coronavirus crisis.

The Guardian’s Saturday edition, which Lee has described as “brimming with brilliantly told features and opinion”, is set to bear the brunt of the cuts.

In a piece for The Conversation, Lee, pictured, wrote: “I wonder if there is a world where multi-million-pound budget cuts and job losses lead to a better product? I don’t know of one. It’s certainly not journalism.

“So why go for the features? Why go for a paper’s soul, its beating heart, what it is known and highly regarded for?

“Because of the money. A feature is a longer piece of writing. It is the news behind the news, perhaps, a patchwork quilt of people and views and emotions that cuts through the long grass of an issue and presents the reader with a neatly bundled editorial package that provides genuine insight.

“The news gives you the information. The feature tells you why it matters. It’s the meat on the bones.”

Lee was a feature writer for nearly 20 years before being made redundant in 2016.

He added: “The Mercury’s features department – one of the best in regional journalism – was razed to the ground in this brave new feature-less world. It’s a familiar story, told over and over again in most newsrooms.

“But has it worked? I’m not sure it has. It’s saved them money, sure. But at what cost? And was it a price worth paying?

“A diet of news alone is not enough to grapple with the complexities and nuances of what is happening around the world. There is real value in features. The figures for the Saturday Guardian show that.

“I hope that journalism – for all of its obvious faults – can find a route through this morass, a solution that can preserve the future of long-form feature writing. Because it does have a future.

“Readers still want long-form, detailed, absorbing writing. They want features. They know their value.”

Lee has received praise on social media following the piece’s publication.

Speaking to HTFP, he said: “I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the reaction, which shows, I think, that readers do want features.

“They want a mix of news and features. They want to know what’s happening – but, in more detail, who it’s happening to and why it matters.

“They want the news dissected and explained.”