Got it: style="white-space: normal" did the trick.
var articleFormatter = function(row, cell, value, columnDef,
dataContext) {
return "<h4><a href='/" + dataContext["someField"] + "/
staff/"
+ dataContext["id"] + "'>" +
dataContext["title"] + "</a></h4>"
+ "<p style='white-space: normal'>" +
dataContext["content"] + "</p>";