Honestly...a good lead. (Or lede if you prefer). An excellent turn of phrase really helps. It says that, even if the story is thin - and God knows those late-night, on-spot files can be - the reader will be sold in those first few sentences/paragraphs. Something that makes them chuckle, or say "yep," or say "hmph" or, in some cases, "oh, horse****." That tweaks an editor's knowledge of the craft and their recognition that people will read your story.
You'll hear other things from other people. God knows some 27-year-old out there just wrote the prettiest ****in 96-inch feature you ever read replete with arias, interludes and a lyrical denouement that I could gut in half and lose virtuallly nothing, just like filmmakers today need damn near three hours to tell a superhero story that a comic book accomplishes in book worth of frames.
