Think of the old news reading experience ? you walked out the front door, picked the newspaper off the lawn, and opened it while walking back. The top half of the front page took most of your attention for the simple reason that it?s hard to hold a newspaper wide open and see where you?re going.? Articles picked for the space ?above the fold? pretty much set your reading.
In the past, a headline only competed with the other articles on the page.? Newspaper printers spent more time deciding which articles appeared above the fold, and less on how to write the headline once people were already there.
But today when you sit down to read the news online, you might as well be opening up a paper the size of Casco Bay.? If your news site arranges articles by popularity (which most do to increase clicks), then the equivalent ?above the fold? articles are based on thousands of readers making split second decisions as to what to click.? That?s a headline decision.
More clicks means more advertising revenue, and more readers who might pay premiums to get access to the site.? If clicks are largely dependent on the headline, then suddenly these few summary words have been thrust into a key place in media.
The new breed of young writers is certainly well trained. Twitter has drilled into them that only catchy short sentences will grab attention. Twitter treats poor writing like nature treats a wounded animal.
The bad news is that we are seeing a move toward more sensational eye catching headlines.? Article content is following right behind.? Good writing on interesting topics with old style descriptive headlines won?t get the clicks, and their writers won?t get compensated for their efforts.
Yet the headline writers who know how to work a sexual innuendo or smutty rumor into a few words will get all the attention.
Postscript and full confession: In the last nearly 1,000 articles for Good News Bad News, the most clicked on headline is, BAD NEWS ? Online dating ? Scientists offer 3 reasons why it?s not as good as ?the old way.? It has more than twice the clicks of the second most popular article.? I guess we do it too.
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