Writing good headlines1

CMN – 131 – Journalism 1Prof. Holly Johnson©2012

Portions of this presentation are excerpted from the Poynter Institute online at www.poynter.org.

Writing good print headlines is an art

Good headlines can use alliteration (“Student stabbed while snacking Snickers”)

Good headlines can use puns and plays on words (“Derby horse reined in after win” or “White collar criminal plays with dough”)

Good headlines may reference titles of songs and movies (“How the mid-west was won”)

Good headlines convey the topic of the article in a way that entices readers to stop and read

Rule #1 – First do no harm

Have empathy for your subject. Do not use a headline to mock people who are down and out.

Bad headlines: House fire destroys belongings, home and hope

Head ripped off of drunk driver in collision

Rule #2 – Head can’t contradict the deck

The big type and the little type must be consistent in meaning, tone and content.

Bad headline:

School enrollment growsFewer students in the classroom

Rule #4 – Use humor carefully

Humor and cleverness should not make the reader groan because of bad puns or old clichés.

Bad headlines:

IRS finds season taxing

New railroad plans are on track

Man steals clock, faces time

Rule #4 – Don’t make the reader go “huh?”

Avoid headlines that are just plain confusing.

Bad headlines: Fanny Wang On Ear Headphones Review

Stolen painting found by tree

Miners refuse to work after death

Rule #5 – Avoid jargon and SAT words

Bad headlines: Students eschew new cafeteria food

New York mayor swaddled by sycophants

Rule #6 – Use clichés only when they’re clever

Clichés only work if you turn them on their head.

Bad headline: It rained cats and dogs in Pasadena

Good headlines:Give them an inchThey’ll take the yard(for an article on invasive ground covers)

At Leavenworth they break out in song(for a prison escape that took place during a concert)

Rule #7 – Avoid crash blossoms A headline that has a confusing double meaning is known as a crash blossom, named after an article entitled “Violinist Linked to JAL Crash Blossoms (The article, from the newspaper Japan Today, described the successful musical career of Diana Yukawa, whose father died in a 1985 Japan Airlines plane crash.) Bad headline:

Girls win 4-H prize for fat calves

Tiger Woods plays with own balls, Nike says

Rule #8 –Ignore all the other rules if you have a good reason

You be the judge:

Poultry in MotionTipped rig dumps thousands of chickens

Headlines for web and print are different

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization – the term means the way that headlines are crafted so that they come up quickly on search engines.

To get SEO - use keywords that are likely to rate high on search engines including names of popular people and products

To enhance SEO - position key words near the front of the headline

Also - use tags and hyperlinks of keywords for extra benefit

SEO – CASE STUDY1

The Wall Street Journal's web site posted a story with the headline: "Green Beans Comes Marching Home.” It was about Green Beans Coffee, a company serving overseas U.S. military bases, opening its first cafe in the United States.

If you go to Google and keyword search "Green Beans," "coffee," "U.S. military," "bases" and "soldiers” the article does not come up.

To get the article to be SEO it needs a headline with keywords such as “coffee,” “cafes” or even “Starbucks.”

An SEO headline for the article should read “U.S. Military Coffee Supplier to take on Starbucks with Cafes Stateside.”

(This case study comes from an article by Elinor Mills for CNET news at www.news.cnet.com)

PracticeDirections: Read the article topic then craft a print

headline and a SEO headline for it.

1 – An article about a mouse found eating hamburger in the MCCC cafeteria.

2 – An article about a survey of community college students showing that those who spend most hours studying are most likely to stay and graduate.

3 – An article about a lecture at Princeton on race relations in the US that people left early because the speakers were dull.

4 – An article about Mercer’s aviation program being closed due to funding cuts.

5 – An article about a successful Rutgers band that formed for the sole purpose of getting free drugs and picking up girls.

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