Online vs. Print, a tale of the times.
Whereas headlines in the print format have traditionally been bound by space limitations and font sizes, online headlines have a little bit more flexibility.
But what exactly does that mean?
The cover from Monday, Sept. 1 from the New Orleans Times-Picayune had their dominant headline read "Hunkering Down." While this works for print because it is paired with a dominant photograph of vacant New Orleans, if somebody were to subscribe to their RSS feeds and read a headline that simply says "Hunkering Down" without the other visual cues that accompany a print page would make no sense.
So what can online publications do to work around this problem?
Well, the simple suggestion would be to use the subhead as a headline. The subhead for this specific front page was "Weaker Gustav might give metro area breathing room." This headline when read on an RSS feed or an e-mail edition would make more sense than "Hunkering Down."
PDF of The New Orleans Times-Picayune
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2 comments:
Your headline on this blog post is a good example of using likely keywords for searching on the Web. How about making that NOLA address a hot link so I can click on it rather than having to paste it in the address line?
I think you bring up an interesting point. Headlines have always been limited to a certain size or space. As a copy editor, I know how hard in can be to get the exact words into the right space. Sometimes you are forced to have a generic headline, such as "Hunkering Down" because that's all the space you're given. The subheads give the copy editor a chance to expand or explain the headline.
Instead of worrying about spacing for Web site headlines, copy editors must consider key words from the article. Using searchable words will not only help for RSS feeds, but also for readers wishing to Google an article.
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