It’s not just about the narrative
Most journalists are writers. They think in and about words. Sure we have photojournalists and news artists, but the lingua franca of newspapers is the narrative. Every event should be covered by a story.
But the truth is the narrative, especially the traditional inverted-pyramid format, is good for some things and not so good for others. Thus, the growing use of ALTs or Alternate Story Formats or ASFs or whatever the current nomenclature is. (Has anyone else noticed what a Tower of Babel we have in newspaper design terminology?)
Anyway, the high visual/low text approach of ASFs is certainly one good strategy to cover those events that lend themselves to a more list-like approach. Why waste time crafting a narrative when an ASF would achieve the same ends in an easier-to-digest, more visually interesting way?
Here is a brief little video about one such instance. For a larger-screened version, check out the version at the News Design School online newspaper design tutorials site.