A story about big ideas might get more points than one about a commonplace event, but any story done well scored high. Stations that covered a lot of topics well scored the highest. What didn't win points is notable. Topic is considered neutral. A crime story might score as high as a science piece.
Stories earn no points for length.
Production techniques are considered tools and not rated. The study avoids rating subjective qualities such as tone or negativity. The values mainly note how stories were put together. One can ignore the quality scores, and simply track which newscast characteristics audiences respond to via the ratings data.