The story is about new tech that United Airlines is investing in.
The audience would be customers of UA to show that they are trying to be more environmentally friendly.
The benefit for the reader was that it makes the customers feel better flying in an airline that is more environmentally friendly and better for the world.
This story goes more into depth about each topic. They also go away from the main story. They started explaining what Natron Energy is rather than how UA is using it.
Compared to some of the other articles students discussed, this is close to being usable as a story. The problem is the battery is news, not so much that UA is an investor. The story would probably be re-written without UA included.