Shifting to how different newspapers cover the same stories or beats, I found two different articles written about the new synthetic marijuana craze (called "K2" or "Spice"). Both were published on the 10th.
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I thought Gay's piece had a much better lede -- it was magnetic and also directly relevant to the topic at hand -- it mentions synthetic marijuana right away. Savage's lede to me wasn't directly related to the article's main theme. If you struck that opening paragraph from the article, you'd not have lost anything, and hence, you don't really gain anything by it being in there.
Both articles used a mix of sources -- both quoted a store owner who sells Spice and both got statements from different individuals at the DEA. Both also used the same medical source, a Dr. Anthony Scalzo, but got different quotes from him. Gay's article gets the gold star though because he got a statement from the creator of K2, a Clemson University chemist named John W. Huffman. I think it's natural to wonder about the origins of a narcotic like this, so mentioning who created it was important, and especially good to have gotten material from him. Savage's piece doesn't even mention Huffman.
One aspect I did like better about the Savage piece was that it included firsthand experience of people who've actually tried K2 -- both symptoms and effects. Reading Gay's piece alone you'd not have any idea how the drug affects you other than some conjecture about how dangerous it is.
I thought Gay's article flowed better and I agree that it was stronger on the whole because it contained a quote from the creator of K-2, which the other article did not. The Savage piece also felt choppy to me, and did not engage my attention the way the first article did.
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