The New York Times reports: Headlines in newspapers and magazines were once written with readers in mind, to be clever or catchy or evocative. Now headlines are just there to get the search engines to notice. In that context, “Jon Stewart Slams Glenn Beck” is the beau ideal of great headline writing. And both Twitter and Facebook have become republishers, with readers on the hunt for links with nice, tidy headlines crammed full of hot names to share with their respective audiences.
Keep in mind that all of the things that make headlines meaningful in print — photographs, placement and context — are nowhere in sight on the Web. Headlines have become, as Gabriel Snyder, the recently appointed executive editor of Newsweek.com, “naked little creatures that have to go out into the world to stand and fight on their own.”
Some of them are a little more naked than others.
“Taylor Momsen Goes Pantsless, Curses on Morning Television” suggested a headline on The Huffington Post’s “most popular” feature on Friday. She didn’t actually appear bottomless, but that’s part of the trick of writing digitally snappy headlines. It seems almost tasteful next to an MSN take: “Taylor Momsen Vomits On-Stage, Wants to Be Kurt Cobain.”
Read more from The New York Times >>