On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.
The worst headline is one that contains a factual error. Bad headlines are ones that are bland, and don't tell the reader anything specific, like 'Democrats at it Again.'
The headline is the most important element in most advertisements. It is the telegram which decides the reader whether to read the copy.
The old newspaper adage, 'If it bleeds, it leads,' is as true today as it was a century ago.
It's gonna be short if it's news; put it at the top. Style's not an issue, just make it news.
[Newspaper] editors print everything they possibly can in large capital letters.
Newspapers are so boring. How can you read a newspaper that starts with a 51-word lead sentence?
Headline writing is an art form.
Why don't you put that in the headline: 'He Only Did Three With Doris!' Set a lot of people straight.
Headline writing is tough because often times you are given a predetermined number of spaces and words depending on the layout and the type of the story.
I never write fewer than sixteen headlines for a single advertisement.
If you only have one shot at writing a headline, there's a lot of pressure.
Never use tricky or irrelevant headlines… People read too fast to figure out what you are trying to say.
People often think that reporters write their own headlines. In fact, they almost never do. The people who do write headlines are the copy editors who are the front and last lines of quality-checking in a newspaper before it goes to print.
Pick up any newspaper in the morning. Count the words in the lead sentences. There will be at least 25 in all of them: Guaranteed. The writers just want to tell you how many degrees they have from this college or that university.
What a newspaper needs in its news, in its headlines, and on its editorial page is terseness, humor, descriptive power, satire, originality, good literary style, clever condensation, and accuracy, accuracy, accuracy!
When you're writing for newspapers you have all these parameters. You can't swear, you have to use short paragraphs, all that. If you stay within those parameters, you have lots of freedom because you're writing for the next day.
Writing headlines is a specialty - there are outstanding writers who will tell you they couldn't write a headline to save their lives.
You have to have a strong title. It's got to say something.
A good headline is far more than a summary. It has to characterize, in a few brief words, the most important themes and news items of the article it accompanies.
Headlines can be strengthend by the inclusion of emotional words like darling, love, fear, proud, friend and baby.
