Google Rich Results Tool now has support for article structured data. The tool was recently brought out of beta as the older testing tool was deprecated.
Google has said that by adding article structured data to your news and article pages, you can enhance its appearance in search results. This means your article could appear in a top stories carousel, visual stories or it could have a larger than usual image to distinguish it from other search results.
Using this mark-up could mean more exposure and traffic for your site in Google Search.