My friends at the Poynter Institute, who spend a lot of time stating the obvious and being just plain wrong, this time have assembled some articles from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in-house newsletter about headline writing:
http://www.poynter.org/centerpiece/041902_headline.htm<p>Jim Barger, sports editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: <p>"The best headlines are the ones after which you can say 'doo dah.'"<p>***No, Jim, the best headlines are the ones that tell you what the damn story is about.***<p>"Don't write a headline you wouldn't say when talking to a friend. No one in history ever uttered, 'Woodley, defense propel Dolphins past NY.'"<p>***Can you imagine a newspaper full of headlines that replicate conversations with friends? The "Woodley" headline, assuming it's accurate (if a little dated), crams a lot of information in a little space. It's a pretty good headline, although it would be better to specify "Jets" or "Giants" instead of using "NY."***<p>Sunday-magazine editor Jim Heinrich, in an upset, makes an excellent suggestion that will be familiar to regulars here:<p>"Don't use headlines that have appeared in the Post-Gazette. When in doubt, I search the library to make sure I'm not recycling old ones, including my own. Every November, for example, I edit ski packages for the travel section. In recent years I've used 'Skiing is believing,' 'See and ski' and, this year, 'Reach for the skis.' I've banned these for life, even though it's a struggle to come up with a new idea." <p>***Of course, the examples Jim cites never should have been used in the first place. Regulars will note that I extend the library search to the Nexis database of U.S. newspapers.***<p>Then, Jim spoils it all with:<p>"My best tools for writing headlines are my rhyming dictionary, my dictionary, my thesaurus and www.imdb.com (the extraordinary Internet Movie Data Base). I use the rhyming dictionary not because I want to write headlines with rhymes. ... Instead, I look up words that rhyme with or sound like a key word, phrase, name or concept in the story, and I play word association games."<p>***Don't play games with the reader, Jim, and don't use crutches. The headline writer who resorts to the thesaurus or "rhyming dictionary" is stretching. Rely on your own command of the language.***<p>For Scott Mervis, "writing headlines is a combination of playful word association, deep worrisome thought or--best of all--some kind of out-of-mind-out-of-body inspirational experience, i.e. luck."<p>***Let's not make it out to be paranormal. Headline writing is really quite simple: They should be written to call attention to the story, not to themselves.***<p>Finally, back to Jim Barger, who says, "Headline writing is in the genes. Either you've got it or you don't.***<p>***No, headline writing is not "in the genes." Any reasonably intelligent person can be taught to write perfectly acceptable headlines in an afternoon. The "trick" is to get off the notion that headlines are an art form. A "memorable" headline usually is remembered at the expense of the story, which defeats the headline's sole purpose.***<p>[ April 19, 2002: Message edited by: blanp ]</p>

From a Poynter Institute article called "Stand Alone Photos Always Rate High with Readers":<p>• Place a good headline over the photo (headline can also appear below the photo, but I always recommend the superior position for more effective packaging). <p>***David Ogilvy was an ad man, not a newspaperman, but he sure as hell understood that pictures come first, headlines second. But wherever the headline is placed, I have to agree that it should be a "good" one.***

A few days after blanp started this thread, my exec. editor sent me the same link in an e-mail recommending the Poynter articles to my attention. A couple days after that, I found printouts of the articles in my mailbox. Since I'm still not planning to inflict this stuff on my desk (either the bad parts or the obvious parts), I expect that next I'll find the articles stuffed into the mouth of a horse's severed head in my bed.