Is the era of classic newspaper headlines over?
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
In this new age of page views and search engine optimization, it is safe to say that news headlines as we know them are over (at least online). That means flowery language and clever puns must give way to keywords and summaries. The necessary evil of optimizing news headlines for higher traffic means that online copywriting will require a different kind of ingenuity. At this point, will there ever be another headline that will go down in history?
If old school copywriters were thrust into the modern era here is probably how famous headlines may have turned out:
FREDDIE STARR ATE MY HAMSTER
would be:
Cheshire woman accuses comedian Freddie Starr of eating her pet
MAN WALKS ON MOON
would be:
US astronaut Neil Armstrong becomes first man to walk on moon
DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN
would be:
Truman defeats Dewey*
*The Chicago Daily Tribune corrects its previous statement. Thomas E. Dewey did in fact lose the race.
If old school copywriters were thrust into the modern era here is probably how famous headlines may have turned out:
would be:
Cheshire woman accuses comedian Freddie Starr of eating her pet
would be:
US astronaut Neil Armstrong becomes first man to walk on moon
would be:
Truman defeats Dewey*
*The Chicago Daily Tribune corrects its previous statement. Thomas E. Dewey did in fact lose the race.
Labels: site management
3 Comments
teachj Says:
Honestly, I still do read stories that have more interesting headlines. I often skip stories with boring ones - especially in RSS feeds. So, I don't know if you should write the obit on interesting headlines just yet.
Tom Whitwell Says:
I've done sessions teaching online headlines , and used 'Freddie Star Ate My Hamster' as the sole example of a classic headline that was also completely web-friendly (full name, very clear, tells the entire story quickly, has all the relevant keywords)
Classic non-web headlines for me are 'Gotcha' or 'Bastards' or 'Super Cally Go Ballistic, Celtic Are Atrocious' (fails to mention Caledonian Thistle)
It's much harder to write strong web headlines than people think - keywords get you into the top 10 on Google, but a human still has to click from there.
Classic non-web headlines for me are 'Gotcha' or 'Bastards' or 'Super Cally Go Ballistic, Celtic Are Atrocious' (fails to mention Caledonian Thistle)
It's much harder to write strong web headlines than people think - keywords get you into the top 10 on Google, but a human still has to click from there.
I remember having a great hed with alliteration and had two e-mails from higher-ups telling me to make it more Web-friendly.
Apparently, a procession of P-words in a hed isn't good SEO. :)
Joe
joeruiz.net
August 13, 2008 12:09 PM