It’s not easy writing headlines

TONY DODERO

“The best newsrooms are places where people live in fear of being

wrong. Good journalists can’t stand errors.”

-- CAESAR ANDREWS

Editor, Gannett News Service

A couple months back, I wrote a series of columns about our

attempts to corral the number of errors that appear in the paper.

I told the readers how we implemented a new error policy that

promised sanctions against those who commit careless mistakes.

Internally, we have made other adjustments to our copy editing

process that we feel will be beneficial to the process.

In all, I think it has paid off.

Will we ever permanently rid ourselves of errors? No way.

It’s just impossible considering things like deadline constraints

and mere human behavior.

Generally, though, I think the amount of errors we make has

dropped off considerably. Still, I’d be interested to hear from the

readers to see if that perception is widely held.

Unfortunately, this week I learned again how fallible we are when

a fairly large headline error appeared in the paper on Thursday.

The headline stated, “No lifeguards drowned in the line of duty in

2003.”

While technically that headline is not wrong, it didn’t convey the

real meaning behind the story, which was about the amount of rescues

lifeguards performed in 2003 and the fact that there were no

drownings of swimmers last year.

That in itself is a pretty remarkable piece of information,

considering the 8-million visitors to the beach during that time.

What isn’t remarkable is that no lifeguards drowned in the

process.

In my 15 years associated with this newspaper, I can’t recall one

time that a lifeguard has drowned, so our headline amounted to a man

bites dog, nonnewsworthy event.

But the headline error itself prompted me this week to discuss

with the readers the art or craft of headline writing and what it

entails.

According to the journalism school textbook, “The Art of Editing,”

headlines should follow these basic rules:

1. Attract the readers’ attention

2. Summarize the story

3. Help the reader index the content of the page

4. Depict the mood of the story

5. Help set the tone of the newspaper

6. Provide adequate typographic relief.

Once upon a time, I attended a copy editing seminar by Don Fry, a

writing and editing coach who teaches seminars for the Poynter

Institute, a journalism think tank of sorts based in St. Petersburg,

Florida.

Fry told the gathered editors that the most important and skilled

writers at a newspaper, in his estimation, are the headline writers.

That’s because, he said, headlines give a newspaper its

personality. In a few short words, the headline will either lose the

reader or snag or drag him or her deep into the story.

And that, after all, is our No. 1 goal, right?

What I also learned from Fry that day is that newspaper studies

have shown that the first thing a reader looks at when glancing at a

newspaper front page is the photo. Second thing they look at is the

photo caption and finally the third thing is the headline.

The actual story reading is way down the list.

Because headlines are one of the first things a reader gravitates

to -- that’s why they are so important -- and it’s probably also why

readers or official sources get so agitated when a headline is wrong

or conveys a different meaning than the story.

As a former copy editor of this paper and others, I’ve written my

fair share of headlines, some good, some not so good and some

downright bad.

My favorite headline was one I wrote about a story we were doing

on James Crummel, the convicted child molester who was living in the

Newport Crest condominium complex.

We had written stories about the protesters who were picketing

outside Crummel’s door, when our crime reporter at the time,

Christopher Goffard, scored an interview with the besieged felon.

“There are a lot of perverts out there yet, and I’m not one of

them,” Crummel told Goffard as he spoke through his screen door.

As the copy editor that night, I was charged with coming up with a

headline for the story, one that would trumpet our exclusive

interview.

Here’s what I came up with:

“Convicted molester says he’s no pervert.”

Like I said, I still am fond of that headline today and I know it

got people reading the story. But I have others that I’m not so fond

of and some I’m downright embarrassed that I wrote.

Such is the life of a headline writer, though. It’s not easy. The

headline writer must summarize the story in sometimes five words or

less, in a cramped space with many restrictions.

For example, newsrooms across the land were probably shuddering at

the thought of the Terminator becoming governor, not because they are

a bunch of liberals, but because getting the name Schwarzenegger to

fit in a headline is not easy.

Headline writers don’t get any of the glory. That’s the domain of

reporters.

Copy editors and headline writers are often anonymous

functionaries, who spend much of their day cleaning up grammar and

making the aforementioned writers look good and sometimes saving them

from embarrassment. It really is a thankless job at times.

Still, it is a critical job and one that demands the utmost care

and attention to detail. And our readers notice the mistakes and are

quick to point them out to me.

Since I know our readers expect us to be at our best at all times,

I assure you, the headline writers are getting the message as well.