How to Write a News Article: Headlines
Basic guidelines for creating news articles in print, photos, and video.
- Home
- What Is News?
- How to Interview
- The Intro or Lede
- Article Format/Narrative
- How To Write A Review
- Writing News Style
- Naming Sources
- Headlines
- Revising/Proofreading
- Photos/Graphics
- Video
- The Future of News?
About Headlines
Headlines are becoming increasingly important in the internet age. Not only do they capture the reader's attention, they serve as source material for search engines. Today a reader is just as likely to come across an article by reading a list of search engine results as by scanning a newspaper page.
Headlines should be clear and specific, telling the reader what the story is about, and be interesting enough to draw them into reading the article.
- 5-10 words at the most
- should be accurate and specific
- City Council to Cut Taxes doesn't mean the same thing as City Council to Cut Budget
- Man Skateboards for Homeless
- Convention to Create Jobs
- President Declares Peace, Holiday
- Crackdown on Trafficking doesn't tell you who's doing the trafficking and what kind of trafficking
- Rays Win - not Rays Win Final Game of Playoffs
- Rays Flip-Flop On St. Petersburg
